The Reclaimer Effect
by Thorthemighty321
Summary: It's the eve of the centennial anniversary of the beginning of the Human-Covenant War. A mere twenty years after the discovery of Prothean Ruins on Mars. A simple case of poor communication leads to a brief but violent conflict erupting and leads to the United Earth Government and it's military arm the UNSCDF coming onto the Galactic Stage of politics, mysteries, and adventures.
1. Trouble Brews

**First thing of note, I don't own Halo or Mass Effect. That goes to 343i and Bioware respectively. Second thing, first time writing the Mass Effect Universe so please be nice.**

 **Also, the UNSC will be using Element Zero to a degree. Mostly in the fact that some of the ground vehicles use it, but warships particularly anything bigger than Light Cruisers which are 1,250 meters long use a combination of Element Zero Drives and Fusion Drives for propulsion instead of straight Element Zero Drives.**

 **Now I will be tweaking the capabilities of the Citadel Races so that way the UNSC doesn't stomp them hilariously.**

* * *

 **Book I: THE SHANXI AFFAIR**

* * *

 **0230 Hours, February 3rd, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **In unnamed system at Shanxi's sister relay**

 **Onboard UNSC** _ **London**_

The _London_ was old ship, the last of the _Paris_ class Heavy Frigates. She had been built and commissioned in the year 2551 and by some miracle had survived the Human-Covenant War. Now here she was on her last jaunt before she was slated to be decommissioned and scrapped.

Not that Lieutenant Commander Iago Blower cared. As ancient and archaic that the _London_ was, she was his first command and thus was in love. That said, he wasn't happy about his assignment. They were out babysitting a science ship that was activating Shanxi's sister Mass Relay, it was boring as hell.

Then it all changed. "Captain, we got fourteen unidentified ships inbound. Bearing 045 degrees relative, 005 degrees inclination, range 1,825,600 kilometers and whoa! Contacts just went FTL in Real Space! Closing, five light seconds, four light-seconds, three light-seconds, two light seconds, unknowns have dropped out of FTL and are closing rapidly, range 250,000 kilometers. Scans indicate that they are using nothing but Element Zero drives, even on the biggest ship." The ship's AI, Igla said somewhat concerned.

 _That's not a good sign._ Iago thought. "Bring the ship to TAC CON Alpha 3! Broadcast a standard warning, they get closer than 150,000 kilometers then they are to be considered hostile. Signal the _Ellen Anders_ , tell them to have their slipspace drive spooled up and ready to go." He ordered.

"Yessir!" Igla said.

"Sir, the _Anders_ has received our message and is spooling up her slipspace drive. They will jump the moment the shooting starts." Comms said.

"Roger Sparks." Iago replied.

"Inferno missile pods are hot, point-defense pulse laser cannons coming online, CIWS spun up and hot, MAC and secondary guns are charging at their maximum rate. ECM system is on but not engaged, decoys ready to launch, and Omni-directional hardlight barrier primed!" Ops reported.

"Reactors at fifty percent output, ready to go to one hundred percent on demand. Emergency thrusters armed and ready to fire on command." The helmsman replied.

Iago nodded, good the _London_ was ready just in case things went south. Which considering how these unknowns were approaching them it was highly likely.

He glanced at the holographic screen, the range was now 200,000 kilometers. "Ship types?" Iago asked.

"Unknown sir. Biggest ship is about 950 meters in length, with four ships being roughly 720 meters in length, there are three ships that are 475 meters, and the last six ships are absolutely _tiny_ at 150 meters long." Igla said.

"What's the range and what does their formation indicate?" Iago asked.

"Roughly 160,-" Igla began before Ops interrupted him.

"Sir! I am detecting Superluminal targeting sensors locking on! Based on the frequency I say it's Forerunner based!" Ops said.

"Action stations! Reactors to one hundred percent! Alert the _Anders_ tell them bug out straight to Shanxi and tell them to declare a probable WINTER CONTINGENCY alert. Helm, initiate the Cole Protocol, purge our navigational database! Ops, activate the Hardlight barrier and go full defensive ECM! Igla, find me a target!" Iago roared and the atmosphere on the bridge turned to ice. The last time the WINTER CONTINGENCY had been declared was in 2555 when the Storm Covenant had struck a UNSC Colony World. The last time the Cole Protocol had been enacted was in 2557 again thanks to the Storm Covenant. The fact that it was being declared again, just a mere twenty years after the discovery of Prothean Ruins on Mars after a dust storm and on the eve of the centennial anniversary of the start of the absolute worst war in human history? As CINC-Navy Thomas Lasky would say "Here we go again."

The _London_ 's aging reactors came to life, a thundering growl that was more felt than heard. The frigate swung around to face the oncoming threat, her engine block aglow with anectic helium-four. While projected from an emitter in her bow appeared a thin yet incredibly durable barrier of blue colored hardlight that was set at an angle while her ECM went to full power, throwing out a wall of defensive ECM. But the ECM system was one of the systems that hadn't been touched in the _London_ 's long career, mainly because ECM systems that could spoof Superluminal sensors did exist they also required large amounts of power, which unfortunately was something that the _London_ 's ancient Mark VIII D-He3 Fusion Reactors just couldn't provide.

"Sir, the _Ellen Anders_ hasn't finished spooling up her drive. They need twenty minutes before they can go!" Sparks said.

"Shit! Tell them to use the Mass Relay!" Iago barked.

"Enemies firing!" Ops shouted.

The Omni-Directional Hardlight Barrier, a normal cool blue, flashed angrily within moments as numerous slugs in the seventy and fifty kilogram range accelerated to velocities of 25,000 and 20,000 kilometers per second respectively fired from the lead alien ship and her four smaller attendants smashed into the barrier with 5.22 and 2.39 megatons of TNT respectively. The frigate shuddered as a beating that would cripple her in moments was unloaded into her hardlight barrier, some of the kinetic force bleeding into the hull.

"Hardlight barrier at eighty percent capacity and falling! Other ships getting involved! Enemy has high rate of fire! Range to hostile fleet 155,000 kilometers, bearing damn well dead on, inclination two degrees!" Igla said, as the second smallest of the unknowns contributed their own fire, sending thirty-five kilogram slugs hurtling towards the _London_ at 15,500 kilometers per second, impacting the hardlight barrier with the force of just over a megaton of destructive force.

"Give it back to them damnit! Select one of the bastards and fire the MAC!" Iago roared.

"Enemy Romeo-Two locked on! Firing!" Weps said as the Hardlight barrier dropped for a fraction of a second allowing the _London_ 's Light-Coil MAC gun to discharge it's five-meter diameter, blunt nosed, 100-ton ferrous metal jacketed depleted uranium cored slug at a velocity of 12,750 kilometers per second, with the destructive power of 1.94- _gigatons_ of TNT behind it.

It took the round twice the time to reach its target compared to the Mass Effect fired rounds that were pelting the Hardlight Barrier of the _London_. But it's effects were much more dramatic. The alien ship designated Romeo-Two stood no chance, with a brief but violent purple-blue flash the round interacted with the ship's Kinetic Barriers and completely overloaded them, blowing their generators as they tried to stop the round. The shell, now somewhat deformed and it's velocity greatly reduced to only about five thousand kilometers per second then bisected the ship from stem to stern, the ship appearing to ripple as hundreds of megatons of TNT in kinetic energy were transferred to the hull. Then with a brief but violent dark blue black flash the Eezero core blew and reduced most of the rapidly expanding debris field to it's component atoms.

The hostile fleet immediately scattered. Their engine blocks erupting into life with blue antiproton fire and rapidly began to close the range against the lone Heavy Frigate, their guns blazing. However, the _London_ 's Omni-directional Hardlight barrier held firm against the onslaught.

"That's a hard kill! Five minutes until we can do that again!" Weps whooped gleefully as a resounding cheer swept across the bridge as the marker for Romeo-Two winked out of existence.

"Hostiles trying to flank! Judging by speed they are enemy destroyer and frigate analogues. Two groups are angling for our flanks, each group has two frigates and one destroyer. The last group is going for the Mass Relay! The enemy Cruiser analogues led by that Battleship are trying to get us in a pincer! Enemy Battleship going high, one enemy cruiser coming at us dead on, and the last two cruisers are going below us!" Igla said.

"Alright! Secondary battery engage Romeos six through twelve. Fire Inferno Missile Pods 1 through 6 at the group heading for the Mass Relay. Cease forward burn, full reverse burn back us off!" Iago ordered.

"Yessir!" Weps and Helm replied. Almost immediately the deck started vibrating as the _London_ 's ten 25cm Mass Effect Field Augmented Helical Railgun Batteries opened fire at a rate of one hundred eighty rounds per minute, hurling 550-kilogram projectiles down range at 25,000 kilometers per second, with each shell hitting with forty-one megatons of TNT. The pitch of the engines changed going from forward propulsion to full reverse thrust, throwing the Heavy Frigate into reverse.

At the same time the flanks of the _London_ was engulfed in fire, smoke, and hot exhaust gases as six Inferno Missile Pods engaged their electromagnetic rails and hurled their missiles into the void, forty missiles leaped from each pod already powered up, their micro-fusion drives engaging and propelling the missile and it's ten megaton antimatter enhanced Casaba Howitzer warhead towards their target. By UNSC standards it was a relatively small salvo, only two hundred forty missiles. The aliens on the other hand, judging by how their ships reacted were at the same time stunned and flabbergasted to see a ship launch so many hyper-velocity missiles in one go.

"Scratch two and three!" Weps said as Romeo-nine and ten, both frigates were hammered by dozens of rounds, their lightweight kinetic barriers having been quickly worn down by the hail of shells and then the light ablative ceramic armor offering barely any resistance to the hypervelocity tungsten shells. Romeo-nine lost her forward most thirty meters and Romeo-ten was torn in half by numerous shells. Their markers winking off the display and thus out of the fight.

The alien ships that were going after the _Ellen Anders_ was beset upon by Inferno missiles. The alien point defenses however while potent they obviously hadn't been designed with such large numbers of missiles in mind, particularly the hyper velocity monsters that the United Nations Space Command Defense Forces used. Two hundred five missiles got through the point defense and detonated, blinding white spheres of ten-megaton thermonuclear destruction enveloped the alien formation, each blast lost fifteen percent of its power to vacuum, the remaining eighty-five percent of the warhead's power was directed into a lethal jet of plasma.

Kinetic barriers were overwhelmed in an instant, the ablative armor proved to be insufficient for keeping hypersonic jets of plasma out thus allowing the jets to tear the alien hulls asunder. As the blinding light cleared, the devastation that the Infernos had brought was incredible, one of the Frigates was completely gone, it's Eezero core have being bisected by a plasma jet. The other frigate has been snapped in half, the bow having been laid open effortlessly while the stern nowhere to be seen, the Eezero core having destabilized from the frigate's rapid unplanned disassembly. The destroyer analogue had actually weathered the storm the best, her hull had been torn open in over a dozen places and she had fires crackling within her hull not to mention she was bleeding air with her engine thrusters cold. But she was intact.

"That's three more kills! This is going to make one hell of a after-action report." Weps whooped absolutely giddy as Romeo eight, thirteen, and fourteen winked off the display.

"Guns, hurry up on pinning down those two flanking destroyer/frigate groups. We won't be able to outrun the hostile cruisers and battleship in reverse for much longer!" Iago said as he glanced at the display.

"Working on it sir. Hostile ships have extreme maneuverability and they are abusing the hell out of it. The computer is having a hard time predicting their movements. But we got them locked down, they try to fly straight in order to get some shots off our guns will tear them to shreds." Weps replied.

"Alright, keep at it. What's the charge status of the MAC?" Iago asked.

"About seventy-percent." Weps replied.

"Good enough! Target Romeo-Four! Helm, after we fire plot a random slipspace jump in accordance with the Cole Protocol." Iago ordered.

"Yessir!" Weps and Helm replied.

Romeo-Four like Romeo-Two was a Cruiser analogue that formed an intricate part of the clever trap that Iago had seen and he knew that eventually the enemy warships would encircle him and that it would also take a few minutes for the slipspace drive to charge, during that time the Omni-directional hardlight barrier would have to be taken off line. Plus reversing course and doing a full burn in the opposite direction was unlikely to work because these ships clearly used Element Zero and would have no problem running down the London. Which meant he had to smash his way out and make the enemy become a victim of their own momentum, using the chance that provided to escape.

Unfortunately that meant going right between two cruiser analogues and a battleship analogue. Given the beating they had delivered to the hardlight barrier earlier, if they timed it right then they would rather easily tear the _London_ apart. "Fire!" Iago ordered.

The Hardlight barrier dropped for a fraction of a second as the MAC discharged. Hurling it's one hundred ton payload at a greatly reduced 9,180 kilometers per second. Romeo-Four seeing it's doom coming went evasive the moment it picked up the shell hurtling toward them. But even with the Element Zero core reducing the mass of the ship, with the range a mere 85,000 kilometers, they only had a mere nine seconds to react.

As it stood the Cruiser's evasive maneuvers saved the ship from getting gutted in fact it nearly saved the crew. The kinetic barriers flashed as they struggled to deflect the round, two titanic forces dueling violently. The Kinetic Barriers won and the round was deflected, the projectile going wind-milling end over end into the void. But it had almost completely arrested the ship's forward movement and judging by the way she was moving now, which was rather lazy with a lot of drift compared to her previous course. The Inertial Compensators had probably failed, which meant undoubtedly fatal results for the crew.

"That's a kill number seven! This is a cracking good day!" Weps said gleefully, thrilled that her gunnery crews were doing so well. As the computer came to the logical conclusion of what had happened to the crew and had the ship's marker wink out.

Regardless now was the _London_ 's chance to escape. "Reactors to three hundred percent, switch to forward thrust, engines all ahead flank!" Iago ordered.

The engine banks of the _London_ exploded with light and the frigate rapidly arrested all of her reverse velocity and quickly accelerated forward. The two cruisers which had been using their superior speed to rapidly close on the _London_ were suddenly victims of their own forward momentum, even as they wheeled around. The two remaining frigates and destroyers couldn't get any closer for the secondary batteries would tear them to pieces. The only thing between the _London_ and freedom was Romeo-one, the hostile battleship analogue.

Suddenly the hostile battleship rolled and presented her broadside arc, which contained no less than _sixty_ Frigate-grade mass accelerators. At a range of fifty-two thousand kilometers the ship opened fire. Fifteen kilogram ferrous slugs were accelerated to a velocity of ten thousand kilometers per second, meaning each slug was hitting with the force of 179.25-kilotons with a rate of fire of one shot every three seconds and at this range it was impossible to miss. The battleship salvoed her broadside guns, by the time the first salvo was two seconds away from impacting the _London_ which was starting to roll in order to angle her armor, the second salvo was leaving the barrel and the recoil force from that had the guns chambering the next salvo.

The results were in a word, devastation. The _London_ had sixty-five centimeters of Titanium-C3 Battleplate, an alloy of carbon nanotube reinforced Titanium-Tungsten alloy, with a Titanium-Tantalum alloy core. While in between the armor pieces was shock-hardening fluids, elastic polymers, ultra-high temperature ceramics, and capsulated healing agents that could seal minor hull breaches automatically, with as a final layer between the armor and the hull being a stuffed whipple shield. Sadly, this armor belt was good enough for only glancing hits and maybe a couple of frigate grade mass-accelerator _not_ sixty rounds slamming into the ship all at once.

Titanium-C3 Battleplate rent and screamed in protest as it was horrifically clobbered by sixty 179.25-kiloton impacts. In several areas the shells punched through the armor and plowed deep into the ship. The _London_ rolled violently from the impacts. The second and third salvo of rounds devastated the frigate, Titanium-C3 fractured and spun through the void, the light of the local star catching the pieces and glinting in the sunlight. Pretty in appearance but tainted as rounds tore through the armor and got at the compartments beyond.

The follow up salvoes from the Battleship's main guns proved to be the _London_ 's undoing. Eight rounds, each weighing seventy-kilograms going at 25,000 kilometers per second slammed into the Frigate with just over 5-megatons of destructive force apiece. The force of the blows nearly snapped the old _Paris_ class Heavy Frigate clean in two and neatly severed her main thrusters from the hull. The _London_ 's running lights flickered dimly for several minutes before going out entirely.

The two alien Cruisers having overcome their own forward momentum came up to the dead and drifting _London_. One of the Cruisers deployed multiple shuttles to board the ship while the other Cruiser moved to an overwatch position. Meanwhile the two surviving destroyers and frigates moved into an escort position next to the Battleship.

The bridge of the _London_ was an utter disaster area. Broken pipes and conduits dangled from the ceiling, sparking erratically. The normal lighting had gone out and the red emergency lighting had come on in its place, most importantly the rumble from the reactor was gone. "Damage report!" Iago barked.

"Believe me sir, you don't want to know. It would be easier to tell you what _isn't_ damaged." The engineering officer said.

"Alright, give me the quick version." Iago said.

"All three reactors are offline were down to emergency power, maser communications dish destroyed, tight-beam laser communications system destroyed, QEC destroyed, slipspace drive destroyed, back up life support destroyed, MAC system destroyed, all of the Inferno pods are either destroyed or offline, CIWS and Point-Defense either destroyed or offline, Harpoon torpedo silos are damaged we can't launch them. Even if the thrusters were still attached, the hull is so badly damaged we won't be able to go anywhere." the engineering officer replied.

 _Damnit, with the reactor offline that means the self-destruct is offline as well. But the Cole Protocol is clear, the capture of a ship board AI is absolutely unacceptable._ Iago thought sourly. Then a bolt of realization struck him, the reactor may have been offline but they still had plenty of nukes.

"Sir, hostiles are moving to board. We have suffered severe casualties to both Marine and crew compliments. Our chances of successfully repeling a boarding action is approximately twenty-five thousand to one." Igla said stiffly.

"Noted. Weps, arm our entire load of _Perseus_ class nukes and transfer detonation command to my station." Iago ordered, referring to the thirty-megaton thermonuclear devices that were the first layer of defense against plasma torpedoes, when detonated the electromagnetic pulse would destabilize the magnetic bottle that the plasma was contained in enough that it would render the plasma torpedo inert. Just one of these things had enough power to turn the _London_ into a pinata when she was intact, setting _twenty_ of the damned things off simultaneously in the shape that the _London_ was in would simply vaporize the ship. The Cole Protocol was absolutely clear, the capture of a UNSC Warship or it's onboard AI was absolutely unacceptable and in this case the _London_ wouldn't be able to flee which left blowing themselves up as the only option.

"Yessir." Weps said before typing in the commands and then looking up. "It's done."

"Good, Igla any sign that our friends have detected us arming our nukes?" Iago asked and Igla shook his head in response.

"Anything onboard this ship and within one kilometer of this wreck is going to get seriously fucked up when we blow the bombs." Iago muttered before speaking up. "Gentlemen, it's been an honor and a pleasure to serve alongside you. First round is on me." he said and then hit the "detonate" command and the world turned white.

The UNSC _London_ ceased existing in a brief white flash as a 600-megaton thermonuclear blast was birthed into existence. What little survived the detonation was flung outwards at incredible velocities, the shrapnel followed closely by a wave of radiation. The kinetic barriers of the cruiser had been knocked offline by the point blank Electromagnetic Pulse was riddled with dozens of pieces of Titanium-C3, Vanadium Steel, and TR Alloy ranging in size from peas all the way to Pelican Dropship with some fragments being even bigger. The armor stopped most of the pieces, but the two largest pieces tore through the armor like paper, then the radiation burst hit. In an instant just over a quarter of the ship was flooded with lethal levels of radiation.

* * *

 **Onboard the Turian Flagship** _ **Redemption**_

 **15th Citadel Patrol Fleet**

 **General Vocus Tanirian Commanding**

"Well _that_ could've gone better." Vocus Tanirian, recently promoted to General hissed as the remains of a _nuclear_ fireball dispersed in the form of black dust where the enemy Cruiser had been. One Cruiser, one Destroyer, and three frigates destroyed, with another frigate and Cruiser mission-killed, another Cruiser heavy irradiated by the nuclear radiation released by the blast, and his remaining destroyers and frigates having suffered minor and moderate damage respectively.

"Agreed that could've gone better. I think what we have just learned is that even if they only use a little Mass Effect, that doesn't mean they are inferior to us. Hell, according to scans, that thing's main gun used only electromagnetic coils to propel a slug of a size that _Destiny Accession_ would be jealous of to a velocity that is roughly half of the velocity of our main guns, but because of it's great mass, about 100-tons when that round hit nothing short of the kinetic barriers on the _Redemption_ would be able to stop it." The captain of the battleship _Redemption_ , Juius Ramlin said.

"That said, I think what we encountered was their largest combat class. However if it wasn't, then I shudder at what they would consider a Dreadnought. We are most certainly going to need more forces to bring these newcomers which honestly have no idea about the dangers of space into the Turian Hierarchy." Vocus said, still shaken at the brutal kicking that one ship had given his fleet.

"I recommend that we find out how many relays have been activated and that we get a Pacification Fleet out here, show these upstarts not to mess with the Hierarchy." Juius said.

"Don't be so sure, just one ship damn near gutted my patrol fleet. So don't be so quick judge, a well coordinated force using those ships will cut just about anything to pieces in short order." Vocus said.

"True, still what do we do now?" Juius asked.

"Launch probes, they are to head through the activated Mass Relay and figure out how many other relays have been activated. After they return, we are to the nearest fleet base and report our findings. Hopefully we can get an expeditionary fleet out here and bring them into the Turian Hierarchy." Vocus replied.

"Given the fight we just went through, I doubt that they will go quietly. If anything, they'll probably greet the expeditionary fleet with magnetically accelerated slugs and swarms of missiles. Our point-defenses are potent but the biggest problem they have is their relatively short range, our newest GUARDIAN Lasers only have a range of three thousand kilometers and that's maximum range, they get effective at just over a thousand kilometers, those hyper-velocity monsters that they use can cross that distance in a matter of moments then of course there is that warhead what the hell was it?" Julius asked.

"That's the thing, judging by what the scans say, they were nuclear warheads but the _damage_ doesn't fit. If anything, according to DAMCON it appears that they were hit with a gigantic HEAT warhead." Vocus said.

"Spirits, you mean that warhead was a _nuclear HEAT charge_?" Julius asked stunned.

"It's the only viable answer considering the damage. They tore down the kinetic barriers pretty quick too, they just aren't designed to stop plasma jets the same goes for our armor." Vocus said briskly.

"Yeah, exactly. Regardless I wonder how this is going to go over with the Council? They will most certainly notice a Expeditionary Fleet moving." Julius said bluntly in a statement of fact.

"We don't have to tell them. We just have to alert fleet command that we encountered someone activating a dormant mass relay in violation of Citadel Law and they'll dispatch a fleet." Vocus said, but judging by way his mandibles flared he knew that these upstarts wouldn't go down easily.


	2. Preparations

**I don't own anything save the OCs, so please keep the legal attack dogs firmly muzzled.**

 **Also for guests, I can give proper reply if you leave a comment while signed into your FFN account, but if you don't have one that's okay too.**

 **Guest 1: That's not really helpful in telling me what I need to change.**

 **Guest 2: Superluminal sensors is a fancy way of saying Faster-than-light sensors and yes they are on the Turian ships.**

 **Guest 3: I will watch how much I will the Citadel races in terms of tech. As for UNSC** _ **Infinity**_ **IFN-101? She's in the process of being decommissioned and turned into a museum. But just because** _ **Infinity**_ **is no longer in service doesn't mean that their are other** _ **Infinity**_ **class Ships. Indeed, the** _ **Infinity**_ **class is an extremely modular design, you got some that are Colony Ships, others that service as Fleet Support Ships, Assault Ships, Hospital Ships, Exploration Ships, Artillery Ships, and there is even a couple that are Passenger Liners and Cargo Haulers. However the Supercarrier variant is no longer in service due to better designs coming into service.**

 **Banana: It's been seventy years since the end of the Human-Covenant War, also I didn't downgrade the UNSC's firepower. I've actually upgraded it quite substantially, and as for the Omni-Directional Hardlight Barrier used by the** _ **London**_ **, it's based on the Hardlight shield that you can use in Halo 4 multiplayer albeit massively scaled up, this is because the** _ **London**_ **can't use a full blown energy shield system, not enough power. Also, you forget, that 100-ton shell has almost two** _ **gigatons**_ **of TNT behind it thanks to its velocity.**

 **Guest 4: Alright, I'll explain it more in-depth in a later chapter. But after the chaos that occurred thanks to the breakup of the Covenant Empire, some Huragok found their way to Citadel Space, who helped them access a Forerunner ruin in the Attican Traverse. As for why the UNSC is using Element Zero, they aren't using exclusively but combining it with their current Forerunner tech, mainly because it provides a lot of little advantages, MAC guns can fire much lighter rounds at much higher velocities when compared to their older designs allowing for more rounds in the magazine with harder hitting power. Plus the advantages in maneuverability that it offers.**

 **In fact to head-off any more people telling me that UNSC MAC guns fire a 600-ton slug at 30-kilometers per second. That's bullshit, one the ship that fired the slug UNSC** _ **Commonwealth**_ **was heavily damaged and it was mentioned as a "Heavy round". Two, with a lighter shell you can make it go faster and also I find the low end Gigaton range for ship-board MACs at full charge to be more in line with what would be possible in five hundred years.**

 **Also holy crap! The response I've been getting for this story is insane. No story I've ever written has gotten so many views so fast, over four hundred in just a few hours.**

* * *

 **0258 Hours, February 3rd, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi Theta System**

 **Onboard Civilian Science Ship** _ **Ellen Anders**_

With a noticeable rattling rumble and a violent lurch, the civilian science ship _Ellen Anders_ came flying out of the Shanxi Theta System Mass Relay. With a flare of light, the ship's antiproton thrusters fired and the eight hundred meter long science ship moved silently through the debris field of rock and ice that had once been the small moon that had surrounded the Mass Relay and then once she was clear of the debris she moved towards a gas giant several hundred thousand kilometers distant to discharge the static that had built up in the ship's element zero drive core during the transit through the Mass Relay.

The mood aboard the _Ellen Anders_ was grim and for good reason. It appeared that Shanxi was going to become Harvest 2.0, another war against alien nation. Two wars against aliens within 100 years? What sort of bad luck was that?

"Get Shanxi CENTCOM online. Tell them what's happened." The captain of the _Ellen Anders_ said grimly.

"Yessir." The comms officer said.

Even the ship seemed to realize that everything was going down hill. The chirps and beeps that were a constant throughout the bridge seemed to be muted. The vibes that this situation was giving off was way too similar to Harvest. One ship to return to a human controlled system to alert them of the threat.

Twenty minutes later, the Science ship was done with static discharge and was now proceeding deeper in-system. Shanxi had been only recently colonized, roughly five years ago and thus there was more permanent then temporary buildings, but the population was fairly large 300,000 people lived on Shanxi mostly in a small city that had sprouted up on the largest continent. But since it was on the frontier, Shanxi did have a small defense fleet. Which should be able to stop a decent sized assault force.

The _Ellen Anders_ rounded Shanxi's moon and the planet came into view. A glittering green, brown, and blue world. There wasn't many ships in system, only two freighters and a lone colony ship, all in low orbit and in the process of off-loading supplies. Meanwhile in geosynchronous orbit hung Shanxi's small defense force of three destroyers and four light frigates. One brand-new _Jacob Keyes_ class Light Destroyer, two old Flight X _Iroquois_ class Heavy Destroyers, and four _Epee_ class Light Frigates, they all sported thick armor, insane amounts of firepower, and some sort of shield system, the _Jacob Keyes_ and the _Epee_ class had Energy Shields as well as an emergency omni-directional hard light barrier but the _Iroquois_ class being a vastly older ship that was nearly at the limit of what it could do without a brand-new reactor being put in only had kinetic barriers and the omni-directional hard light barrier.

"Captain, Shanxi CENTCOM has been appraised of the situation. They are declaring a probable WINTER CONTINGENCY alert, if need be they will start evacuating the colony. Right now though, they want us to bug out and head home and alert Arcturus Station as to what's going on. The planetside QEC has been on the fritz lately, thus they got _Crimson Typhoon_ contacting Arcturus Station right now. They're also requesting that we send all of the data we managed to get on these hostile ships before we were forced to run." The comms officer said grimly.

"Affirmative, notify CENTCOM and send that data, after it's been sent tell them we're pulling out." The Captain said before sighing, where had it gone wrong?

Ten minutes later CENTCOM replied and gave them clearance to depart. Something which relieved the Captain of the _Ellen Anders_ greatly. "Helmsman, get us out of here. Plot a course back to Arcturus Station." The captain said grimly, after that the only sound that reigned through the bridge, was the extremely muted chirps and beeps of the various consoles throughout the compartment.

With a muted rumble, the _Ellen Anders_ turned away from Shanxi and began to accelerate out-system. Some thirty minutes later, her slipspace drive fired and tore a hole in subspace with the ease and grace of an obsidian scalpel, a swirling blue-white portal into the eleven dimensions of slipspace. The ship's engines flashed and the _Ellen Anders_ entered the portal which promptly closed behind her and she left the Shanxi-Theta system behind.

* * *

 **0320 Hours, February 3rd, 2625**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi**

 **Onboard the UNSC** _ **Crimson Typhoon**_

 **Captain Sagira Amari Commanding**

Captain Sagira Amari was in her quarters and tried her best to keep her hands from shaking in fear as she read the report. Which was rare for her, she was of Egyptian descent, her normally dark caramel brown skin was now more fair in color and her sea green eyes betrayed how she felt.

The UNSC _London_ , engaged and likely destroyed by a hostile alien force, a probable WINTER CONTINGENCY alert, the first one in nearly seventy years issued, once again the muzzles and leashes were coming off the dogs of war.

But besides the fact that war was looming? She knew just about _nothing_ of her enemy apart from some basics. Those basics were as follows:

They used Element Zero exclusively for propulsion and power production, which conversely limited the size of their ships to a substantial degree and they appeared to having been using it for quite awhile, since they showed that they had higher maneuverability, which could prove to be problematic.

Their primary weapons for the most part were similar to the Mass Effect Enhanced Magnetic Accelerator Cannons that _Crimson Typhoon_ was armed with, however they had a much higher rate of fire and thus they traded stopping power for rate of fire. If they came under sustained fire, breaking contact to allow for their shields to regenerate could prove to be difficult.

They didn't appear to use energy shields, the readings were all wrong for it. Instead it indicated that they used kinetic barriers, which wouldn't protect as effectively against plasma and particle cannons as it would against straight kinetics. However, thermal damage would most certainly be a thing due to the fact that those kinetic barriers conformed to the hull. Plus it would do exactly jack-shit against lasers, which the UNSC used for long-range point-defense.

Their seemed to be an over-reliance on those kinetic barriers, armor seemed to be almost non-existent or was designed for a different purpose entirely. The scans that the _Ellen Anders_ managed to get as she had bugged out from that incident indicated that much.

Their was just _far_ too many unknowns. For all she knew the heaviest enemy combatants may mount Magnetohydrodynamic Acceleration Cannons or Ferrofluidic Acceleration Cannons that had so much power behind them that they could one-shot the _Crimson Typhoon_ through her energy shields and thirty-centimeters of Kavacha battleplate with relative ease, gutting her in one shot. It was the one thing that all battlefield commanders hated, not knowing what the capabilities of their adversaries were.

But she had a orbital planetary defense to plan, which meant that she had to think how could they best fight an enemy that they knew absolutely nothing about? There was several ways of going around this, one of the ideas was using "hit and fade" tactics, but the problem there was that she didn't know the range of the enemy Superluminal sensors, which at first glance appeared to be Forerunner based, but there were subtle but noticeable differences in both the frequency and waveform used, which meant that the design was probably Forerunner but it had the markings of reverse-engineering. So that was out.

The second option was to fight with guerrilla tactics, using tactical slipspace jumps to make slashing attacks at the enemy's front, leaving nuclear mines and other surprises in their wake. Force the enemy to take their time, clearing mines and thus bogging them down. But it would require exacting precision with each jump and slashing attack, a single miscalculation could put them right in the middle of the hostile fleet and thus surrounded by a lot of guns with several minutes on the clock before you can jump out of that mess. In other words a screw-up like that was a death sentence.

The third option involved taking a direct approach by destroying the troop transports, the enemy wouldn't be able to invade Shanxi at all if they couldn't put boots on the ground. Then again, they could be like the premier Covenant "Troop Transport" the _CCS_ class Battlecruiser, which was not only a troop transport but also a heavily armed, moderately shielded, and decently armored beast of a warship. Another problem was that they didn't even _know_ what the enemy troop transports looked like! Plus even if they did succeed in killing the transports, who's to say that they would then just hit the planet with a Fractional Orbital Bombardment?

The fourth option was possibly the easiest. Draw a line in space over the main colony, nothing gets past that line without express permission from the defense fleet or until the fleet in its entirety was completely destroyed. There was nothing she could do in order to help tip the odds in her favor, she had no idea what the enemy commanders were like, what sort of tactics did they utilize, what the full capabilities of the enemy ships were, and most importantly enemy fleet composition.

There was just far too many variables that she _didn't know_. She sighed, time to plan the battle ahead.

"Windsword you there?" she asked to the room aloud.

A moment later the holographic avatar of _Crimson Typhoon_ 's twelfth generation Smart AI, Windsword appeared, his overall appearance was rather interesting; the AI had apparently taken an interest in extremely old late 20th Century Pop Culture, to be specific and his avatar reflected that, for he appeared as male Minbari Warrior kitted out in full armor. His overall color was sky blue. "Yes ma'am I am. I have to ask though, are you alright? Your vitals indicate that your feeling a lot of stress, worry, and fear. Does it have to do with the destruction of the _London_?" he asked.

"Yes it does Windsword. The _London_ was likely destroyed with all hands, we're at war with an alien alliance that we nothing about _again_ , and Shanxi is going to be the first battleground in this war. We're just seven ships standing alone against Gods only know how many alien ships and a colony with three hundred thirty thousand civilians on it, plus we are a solid sixteen days away from Arcturus Station by slipspace and that's using military grade slipspace drives, it'll take at least a day and half maybe more for everyone at HIGHCOM to stop acting like a chicken with its head cut off, Shanxi CENTCOM is probably screaming for help but the Quick Reaction Force centered on the _Pillar of Autumn II_ is between roughly five days away from us and it's just a single battle cluster at that, and then their is the fact it will take at least three days for the UNSC to put together a response force then send it on it's way. We're on our own and we're all probably going to die as well." Amari said shaking her head and tossing the datapad onto her desk.

"I see, so what's your plan ma'am?" Windsword asked with tripediation in his voice.

"Right now? Planning the battle that lies ahead and figuring out how we can give the enemy a bloody nose that they won't forget anytime soon, not to mention buying enough time for the evacuation to get going and thus get the civilians to safety." Amari said bluntly and decisively.

"I see ma'am. If anything you should get to the strategy room and begin discussing tactics and strategies for the upcoming battle with the other members and AIs of the defense fleet." Windsword replied.

"Your right, alert the ship commanders, XOs, and AIs. I want a strategy room meeting in" she glanced at the chronometer on the wall. "Fifteen minutes." she said.

"Yes, Captain. Sending out proper messages now." Windsword said.

* * *

The strategy room onboard the UNSC _Crimson Typhoon_ was an impressive affair, it was based on Wargame simulator tech, which meant it saved space. Every single warship in the UNSC Fleet had one, they were incredibly useful for putting together battleplans and getting input from various unit commanders or in this case the various ship captains. The way it worked was that you sat down in a specially designed crash couch and linked into the network, although the crash couch in question was more like a pod than a crash couch. The computer would then scan you and upload you into a virtual strategy room with everything you can imagine in order to run it.

Sagira's opinion of it was mixed. On the one hand it was an incredibly effective tool and really useful for planning battles, on the other hand however the whole getting scanned by a computer and uploaded into a cloud virtual room was well it felt weird. No matter how many times she used the damn thing, it just awkward. But when you were in the military you had to suck up and do things that you didn't like.

She sat down in the crash couch and took in a deep breath as her XO, Commander Tobias Moser walked in a grim look on his face. "Can't believe it, ma'am. Nearly seventy-five years of peace and now we are fighting aliens once again. But I swear, some mythological deity must be fucking with us since it's happening on the eve of the most somber day in human history." Moser growled.

"Yeah, Commander I totally agree with you their. With the way this is going down, it seems that the universe is playing what they think is a cruel sick joke on us." Sagira replied.

"Tell me about it. Regardless how do you think we stack up?" Moser asked as he sat down in his own crash couch.

"Not entirely sure. But we seem to hold some advantages, I'll explain it more in depth during the meeting." Sagira said.

"Right," Moser said.

Sagira leaned back, shut the pod tight, closed her eyes, and then the chronometer chimed, this was followed moments later by the scanning and uploading process beginning, courtesy of Windsword. It felt as someone had dumped liquid nitrogen down her spine, it made her skin tingle and her hair stand on end. She shivered involuntarily.

A moment later, the _Crimson Typhoon_ 's Strategy Room materialized around her, a true collection of advanced tech. This room had the capability to do just about anything when it came to planning battles, including some of the more insane ideas that were bound to occur when the situation was as desperate as theirs was.

A chime got her attention and her XO and AI materialized next to her. This was the one interesting aspect of the Strategy Room, the ship's AI would always appear as a flesh and blood human being if it was possible although with some AI avatars it just wouldn't work, she'd work with AI's whose avatars were storm clouds on occasion. "I hate the feeling that thing gives me, makes me feel like I just took a bath in liquid nitrogen." Sagira said in a slightly sore tone.

"Captain, you do know that taking a bath in liquid nitrogen is not only going to be lethal but also impossible, considering that nitrogen is only a liquid a-" Windsword began to say.

"Windsword" Sagira rumbled.

"Yes ma'am?" Windsword asked.

"Shut up."

"Yes ma'am, shutting up now." Windsword said and Mosar coughed violently, probably to stop himself from laughing.

The room chimed again and this time the CO, XO, and AI for one of the _Epee_ class Light Frigates: UNSC _Samuel B. Roberts_. Lieutenant Commander Arati Rasam, recently promoted Lieutenant Steven Hackett, and AI Starman.

LCDR. Rasam was stiff and by the book in terms of personality and how he founded what he had learned at the academy. Not something that would help much here, they would have to throw the book away and do things differently, tough luck for him.

Lieutenant Hackett however had a sharp mind and was a quick thinker. That and he didn't give up easily. Overall if something went wrong on the _Samuel B. Roberts_ during the upcoming action and Lieutenant Commander Rasam was incapacitated or killed, Sagira was positive that Hackett would be able to command the _Samuel B. Roberts_ effectively.

However, the AI for the _Samuel B. Roberts_ , Starman was something of an interesting case in Sagira's opinion. She appeared as an early 21st Century astronaut and was a little witty as well. However she also was cool under pressure.

But before Sagira could open her mouth to greet them. The room chimed several times in rapid succession and the COs, XOs, and AIs of the other ships in the Shanxi Defense Fleet materialized in the room. Five more COs, XOs, and AIs each for the various ships in the Shanxi Defense Fleet, the moment they saw Sagira they all snapped to attention.

Which really hammered in just how badly this could go. Seven ships against who knew how many. "At ease." Sagira said and the assembled COs, XOs, and AIs relaxed. "I am sure that you have all heard that the _Ellen Anders_ returned from her mission early and that the _London_ wasn't with her, having been engaged and presumably destroyed by hostile alien forces." she said and everyone nodded.

"As of right now, we are at war. What's worse is that we are on our own, even though Shanxi CENTCOM has likely alerted Reach HIGHCOM and possibly Arcanis Naval Yard which is home to the closest QRF. It'll still take several days for them to get here. Until then we're on our own. And for all we know, at any time we can have an enemy assault fleet come through that relay." Sagira stated bluntly.

"Alright, what do we know about our foe?" Commander Reto Obi, CO of the Flight X _Iroquois_ class Destroyer, UNSC _Running Riot_ asked.

"Not much, we do know that they seem to use Element Zero exclusively and from what scans that the _Ellen Anders_ managed to get before she jumped out of that mess is that they use primarily mass acceleration cannons for armament which while weaker than our MAC guns have a much higher rate of fire, plus they have above average speed and agility for their size. However they do have Superluminal Sensors, probably reverse engineered by the Protheans but it's extremely similar to our own Forerunner Superluminal Sensors. But we don't what they are using for armor, for all we know they could be using a multilayered composite made of Ring Carbon, Prefect Diamond Whiskers, Liquid Armor, and Titanium-Tantalum Alloy. But since they are using only Element Zero, at least as far as we know, that means they only got kinetic barriers, no energy shields which means if we can get close our plasma and hard light weapons as well as our point defense lasers will be more effective then our MAC guns, but we don't know how well their kinetic barriers can hold up to our MAC guns." Sagira sighed.

"It's like the Covenant all over again. We only know a little bit about our enemy, we have no idea how well exactly our ships stack up against there's in combat. Too many unknowns to think about." Lieutenant Veikko Lehto, XO of the _Epee_ class Light Frigate UNSC _So Much for Subtlety_ growled out.

"Exactly" Windsword agreed. "However, since they use solely Element Zero, there is a limit to how big their ships can get. Biggest we can expect is 1,500 meters and that's probably about as big as they get, a shot from that monster while it won't have the power to punch through our energy shields, depending on yield which at most should be several hundred megatons our Omni-Directional Hard light barriers won't be able to take more than fifty hits, and the kinetic barriers on the _Running Riot_ and _Edsall_ won't be able to take that much punishment for long, _maybe_ ninety hits from something that big, but since we don't know yield we just don't know. Now if they breach our shields or kinetic barriers or worse they manage to surround us. Our armor should hold up decently well, but we just don't know how well, given the muzzle velocities achievable with mass accelerators. ONI once managed to accelerate a twenty kilogram ferrous slug using a simple Mass Accelerator that's one-point-five kilometers long to I think seventy-thousand kilometers per second. Now imagine something far heavier like a quarter metric ton or something along those lines going that fast, which combined with the higher rate of fire that's possible with Mass Accelerators when compared to our Magnetic Accelerator Cannons and Mass Effect Field Enhanced Magnetic Accelerator Cannons." Windsword said and the various commanders, executive officers, and even the AIs all paled at that thought, the enemy wouldn't have the same insane levels of punching power that they did with their MAC and MEFEMAC guns but the superior rate of fire that straight Mass Accelerator Cannons had over said guns would more than make up for it, the thought of space being filled with a hail of shells that could hit with the force of dozens of megatons was sobering.

"So what sort of strategy would we be able to work with considering the possible advantages that the aliens have?" Lieutenant Commander Veikko Lehto, commanding officer of the _Epee_ class Light Frigate UNSC _Pony Express_ , asked.

"They can go FTL in realspace thanks to Element Zero as that's the norm. But it doesn't give them as many options as we do when it comes to rapid tactical repositioning that we do thanks to slipspace. That said, their rapid tactical repositioning will be about as quick as ours. Plus if they want to there ships will be able to run rings around the _Edsall_ and _Running Riot_ with absolutely no problems at all, though I wouldn't recommend it considering that they have Plasma Railgun secondaries. But if there is any weakness in any defense we setup, it's the _Esdall_ and _Running Riot_." Sagira said sadly.

"I resent that ma'am! _Running Riot_ maybe old, but she's the best damned Flight X _Iroquois_ class Destroyer to roll out of the yards. She may not have the extremely fancy mass-lightening or real-space FLT that Ezero ships got, but whatever you do _don't_ count her out." Obi snarled somewhat defensively and Lieutenant Commander Cory Benson as well as Malachor, the _Running Riot_ 's XO and AI nodded sharply in agreement.

Inwardly Sagira groaned, she should've been more tact in wording that. Mainly because before receiving the _Running Riot_ as his first command, Commander Reto Obi had been the Chief Engineer on the _Hannibal_ class Escort Carrier, UNSC _Einstein_. Which meant when someone even in an indirect way insulted his ship, he got defensive about it as any self-respecting Chief Engineer would and that went double for a CO that had been a Chief Engineer before getting that command.

"Sorry about the wording Commander, but the fact of the matter is it's true. I am not discounting _Running Riot_ or _Edsall_ , they can take on Covenant Destroyers in a one-on-one duel and win thanks to their thick armor and originally omni-directional plasma barriers which have now been replaced with omni-directional hard light barriers and supplemented with Kinetic Barriers. However, considering that thanks to mass lightening capabilities that Element Zero offers, it means that any warship with it, if the ezero core is large enough can maneuver to such a degree that it's absurd. Which means if you get rushed by several enemy cruisers, you'll take most of them down but will probably be rendered mission-killed and then that's a solid chunk of firepower that we can no longer use." Sagira replied holding a hand up in a placating gesture.

"Right, let's get back to the task at hand. So in terms of assets at our disposal we got seven warships. UNSC _Crimson Typhoon_ " Rasam started, as he pulled up a three-dimensional representation of a _Jacob Keyes_ class Light Destroyer "the Flight X _Iroquois_ class Heavy Destroyers UNSC _Edsall_ and UNSC _Running Riot_ " two more three-dimensional models, this time of two Flight X _Iroquois_ class Heavy Destroyers appeared. "And four _Epee_ class Light Frigates, UNSC _Pony Express_ , UNSC _So Much for Subtlety_ , UNSC _Samuel B. Roberts_ , and UNSC _Event Horizon_." he finished as four three-dimensional representations of the _Epee_ class Frigate appeared.

"Plus their Aerospace compliments, which stands at for the _Crimson Typhoon_ twenty-four F/A-70 Tanto Exoatmospheric Multirole Fighters, three D88H-TC Pelican Dropships, two G88H-TC/MA Pelican Gunships, six D85L-TC Roadrunner Dropships, and twelve Wallaby Combat Drones. The _Running_ _Riot_ and the _Edsall_ each have only one squadron of F/A-70s, one D88H-TC Pelican Dropship, two G88H-TC/MA Pelican Gunships, four D85L-TC Roadrunner Dropships, and twelve Wallaby Combat Drones. While the _Epees_ only got two G88H-TC/MA Gunships, four D85L-TCs, four F/A-70 Tantos, and eight Wallaby Combat Drones." Blazing Phoenix, the AI for the _Edsall_ said and numerous three-dimensional representations of small craft in question.

Inspiration bloomed in Hackett's eyes. "Wallabies, twelve meter by fifteen meter flying wing design, powered by an antimatter catalyzed micro-fusion reactor with an element zero core. Isn't the standard armament on those things a pair of particle cannons and a M18/C Spartan Laser, with the other four fixed armament presets being two hard light cannons and an annihilation cannon or two 4cm plasma railguns and a focus cannon, or two 5 megajoule pulse lasers and a plasma launcher, with permanent armament being two pulse missile launchers capable of firing a variety of missile types?" he asked, selecting the UCAVs.

"Yes it is, why?" Sagira asked.

"The enemy uses nothing but Element Zero, which means they got kinetic barriers. That means that while they are strong against kinetics, they don't block thermal radiation or lasers. I recommend that we try and arm as many of our Wallabies with pulse laser cannons and spartan lasers as possible and once we run out of those weapon configurations we use the others." Hackett said and small, subtle grins broke out among the assembled commanders, executive officers, and AIs. It was an ingenious plan,

"So we arm our UCAVs with laser weapons mainly. I think that our Aerospace Fighters and Gunships should be carrying mostly bomb-pumped X-Ray lasers? Use those first and then switch to Casaba Howitzers?" Benson asked.

The subtle little grins that everyone was sporting became a little less subtle, they had dozens of little advantages. Which they were going to exploit quite gleefully, it was all but certain that they were all probably going to die. But, they would give the aliens a warm reception, one that they wouldn't forget any time soon.

* * *

 **0500 Hours, February 3rd, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi**

 **Badate Colonial Defense Militia Armory**

The commander of 2nd Platoon in the Shanxi Colonial Defense Militia was an old man, 113 years old to be exact. But despite his age, there was more to his appearance then what met the eyes. First off, he was huge among men, standing at over seven feet tall and weighing just over 130 kilos. His black hair was cut military short and had steadily growing streaks of silver in it, across the bridge of his nose was old scar that he had gotten decades ago. Even though he had retired from official military service nearly twenty-one years ago, the reason he was in the Colonial Defense Militia was a simple one: military life was all that he knew.

However, in terms of being a combat veteran he was incredibly experienced, having fought in over 120 campaigns during the Great War and even more campaigns against the Covenant remnants after the and had even fought in the occasional insurrectionist group both during the war and to a degree afterward. In terms of handling weapons, you named it and he could operate it.

The lightweight armored bodysuit that he wore seemed to be struggling to hold his immense bulk in it. He looked so heavily muscled it appeared that he could probably bend quarter-inch thick sheet aluminum with his bare hands. Something that wasn't far from the truth.

It would make someone wonder how the hell was someone who was so old was so strong? That answer was simple, this man was a Spartan-II. Indoctrinated into the United Nations Space Command Defense Forces, Naval Special Forces Command, Section III at the age of six, receiving a series of biological and cybernetic augmentations at the age of fourteen that made him vastly superior to even the Army troopers, Marines, ODSTs, and even Spartan-IIIs, Spartan-IVs, and Spartan-Vs which all have some level of augmentations of varying strength, the S-Vs having augmentations on par with the S-IIIs.

"Alright, so how are we going to load up, Fred? Heavy or light?" Someone asked as Sierra-104, Fredric or Fred as he preferred to be called stepped out of the specially designed armor donning rig, clad from head to toe in CDMF-issued Gladiator armor.

"Heavy, we're going to be cut-off from reinforcements for the seeable future." Fred replied looking at the militia man who had asked the question, a retired Spartan-III, a member of Gamma Company, Ash-G99.

"Sounds like old times then. Like during Onyx, remember Ash?" The only other retired Spartan on Shanxi, another Gamma Company Spartan-III, Mark-G313 asked as he grabbed his preferred weapon, a Barrett Firearms Manufacturing Sniper Rifle System 99 Series Five Anti-Material Sniper Rifle. Pinpoint accurate to a range over ten kilometers, firing a 15mm APFSDS or HVAP round that could literally turn a bad guy's torso into chum thanks to its muzzle velocity of 10 kilometers per second by virtue of being a railgun, and it could pose more than a decent threat to tanks, IFVs, and APCs.

"I was thinking more akin to that nasty business on Emerald Cove, that mess was way worse then Onyx was." Ash replied as he grabbed an M-7 Lancer Assault Rifle, humanity's first ever Mass Effect Assault Rifle. A relatively solid rifle in Ash's opinion, but it didn't make as nice of a sound when it hit something solid that the older (and in his opinion more sturdy) MA5, MA6, and MA7-series Assault Rifles and Carbines made when they hit something solid.

However the incident that Ash was referring to was the last attack that Jul 'Madam's Covenant had ever performed against humanity. It had been during that incident where Ash and Mark had learned what it was like to wind up on the wrong end of a Plasma Mortar Bombardment.

"I've had some missions go spectacularly sideways before, been up a creek without a paddle before. Same shit, different planet, different year." Fred huffed as he grabbed an MA6 Assault Rifle to serve as his primary weapon, along with ammunition and power cells.

"Yeah, exactly. Got to say though, I am surprised that the CDMF is rapidly phasing out it's older Gauss weapons for Mass Effect Weaponry. Aren't our Gauss Weapons more powerful than Mass Effect?" Mark asked as he grabbed an M6G "Carnifex" Personal Defense Weapon System and several magazines to go with it.

"They are actually about equal Mark, it's just that thanks to mass reducing field and the magnetic rails they are less bulky and thus easier to carry since they don't have magnetic coils and thanks to the ammunition shaving system, all you require is a power cell and ammunition blocks. Thus meaning you can carry more rounds then normal. The fact that the M-7 Lancer has a built in Master Key helps too." Fred replied as he grabbed an Archeon Security M-3 Stinger Plasma Coilgun Heavy Pistol and a quartet of energy cells to go with it.

"True, still I am worried that the Coopers who are going to be helping with the evacuation are going to be more of a hindrance than a help." Ash said as he grabbed a pair of Hannibal Weapon Systems M-9 Hurricane SMGs, along with several ammunition blocks.

"Yeah, they probably are. But then again don't underestimate those SWAT guys, sure they got old weapons. But a lot of the tech they got, MA5s, M393s, BR55s, etc. we fought the Covenant with and did just fine. Plus they are trained in squad level military tactics and strategies. But your right they are going to suffer more than we are." Mark replied as he grabbed six M9 HEDP grenades.

"Yeah, but we don't know much about these guys. So assume that they are similar to what we have for tech level at the very least." Fred said as he grabbed a heavy weapon, a Weapon/Anti-Vehicle Model 12 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle; also known as a Spartan Laser II or simply the Spartan Laser. It was one of two infantry weapons that could gut a M909 Paladin Main Battle Tank from the front. He also grabbed six energy cells for the heavy weapon.

"Is that thing really necessary?" Ash asked with a nervous chuckle as he grabbed a M12 Bayonet, a lethal combination utility knife, bayonet, and fighting knife; it had a wickedly sharp ten inch long fullered Damascus Steel blade with a non-reflective titanium carbide coating.

"We are going in heavy. Besides this thing ignores kinetic barriers and from what little intel we got, our enemy uses kinetic barriers exclusively at least from what we know of. Which means, if worst comes to worst and their tanks have kinetic barriers, heh it won't matter because they don't affect lasers and their isn't much a Spartan Laser can't take out in one shot." Fred said as he mag-clamped the M12 to his back.

"Right, might as well take a heavy weapon myself." Ash said as he grabbed a M57 Pilum, a very common LAW that had seen tons of service during the Human-Covenant War and afterward. He also grabbed several box magazines which went into a heavy weapon pack along with the launcher.

"Might as well grab a heavy weapon myself." Mark added as he walked across the armory from a Lancer rack after he grabbed one and a couple of ammo blocks to a heavy weapon rack and grabbed a M319 Individual Grenade Launcher as well as a banilor of 40mm grenades.

"Think we're ready to head to the rally point?" Ash asked. "I mean, we're lugging around enough firepower to go head-to-head with several hundred bad guys." he finished.

"Ash, rule number one of infantry firepower is that their is almost always room for more. Your only limited by how much you can carry, in this case three Assault Rifles, four SMGs, a plasma pistol, a Carnifex, a Anti-Material sniper rifle, two Anti-Personnel Sniper Rifles, a Spartan Laser, a LAW, a grenade launcher, a shit load of ammunition, and more grenades then we probably know what to do with." Mark said with shrug and Ash gave him the sort of look that wouldn't look to out of place of on a older brother would give a younger brother that had just done something bone headed.

"There's firepower Mark and then their is quite frankly overkill." Ash said.

"I wouldn't be so quick to say that Ash, you know as well as I do that Covenant warships could take a tremendous beating. To the point that the amount of firepower needed to even mission-kill one of those monsters was just plain insane. But, let's get to the RV point. Fireteam Warwolf," Fred said and in an instant Mark and Ash donned their helmets and tensed. Waiting for the next set of orders, it had been years since the Spartans had gone to war against a foe other than some San'Shyuum War Lord that thought he was shit-hot and started trouble. "Fallout."

* * *

 **Turian Hierarchy Space**

 **Zion Naval Station, Headquarters of the 6th Expeditionary Fleet**

 **Onboard the PFS** _ **Archer**_

Upper Lieutenant Sparatus Caepdas strode briskly towards the Captain's Quarters on the _Gladiator_ class Heavy Destroyer PFS _Archer_ with a purpose. He was planning on leaving frontline service and going into the reserves, which would allow him to pursue his real dream job, being a Councillor on the Citadel Council.

He arrived at the door and knocked. "Come" came the gruff voice of his superior officer, Lieutenant Commander Qudia Duvilius. He opened the door and entered, waiting for the door to close behind him. He then strode to her desk and came to attention.

Quida had been in the glorious Turian Hierarchy military for almost twenty years and was an experienced battlefield commander that had seen multiple battles. The jagged scar across the front of her face, which marred her purple and red clan paint somewhat testified to that.

"At ease Lieutenant." Quida said easily.

"You wanted to see me ma'am?" Sparatus asked quickly.

"I did Sparatus, I hate to say it. But your retirement just got shot out the Mass Accelerator for probably the rest of the year." Quida said bluntly and Sparatus's face fell.

"How so ma'am?" Sparatus asked, he had been looking forward to going into the Turian military reserves in about three weeks and like any good soldier who was planning on leaving the service and going into the reserves, he was a little peeved.

"The fifteenth patrol fleet caught some moron activating a primary relay. Considering that they have never been seen before, it's obviously a race that's new to space and don't know about it's dangers. Thus they are going to be brought into the Turian Hierarchy in order to protect and teach them about space and its dangers." Quida said tersely.

"Alright, sounds easy enough." Sparatus said. "Go in smash their military and when they surrender bring them into a treaty that brings them into the Hierarchy." he said simply.

"That's the thing, this probably won't be easy because this one ship." An image of a strange looking ship, shaped like a tuning fork appeared. Studded along it's dorsal, ventral, port, and starboard sides was an array of pulse lasers, rotary cannons, and heavy cannons. From above it became clear that the ship's bow perhaps three hundred meters which was fairly slender, but then the remaining part of the ship got substantially bulkier, with the ship ending with two short and stubby wings that mounted large thrusters. "Gutted the 15th Patrol Fleet pretty effectively by itself. It destroyed the _Negotiator_ , _Redeemer_ , _Resolute_ , _Justice_ , and _Falcon_ , not to mention it crew-killed the _Centurion_ , dealt moderate damage to the _Lancer_ and the _Liberator_ , and minor damage to the _Star Rider_ and _Resurgence_." Quida explained.

Sparatus was silent for a full ten seconds, what the hell? The only time a Turian Patrol Fleet would suffer that badly in a fight would be against an entire pirate fleet, not against a singular ship unless that ship was a Covenant warship but this design was too simplistic and lacked the distinctive predatory form that they preferred. "How did this one ship," he gestured at the three-dimensional model. "Do so much spirit-damned damage by itself?" he asked stunned.

"Simple, it's main cannon doesn't have as high of a rate of fire that our mass accelerators do. But when it fired at what we think was full charge, the round ripped right through the kinetic barriers of the _Negotiator_ like they weren't even their and caused the ship to violently tear itself apart. That round hit harder than a heavy slug from a spirits-damned _super-dreadnought_. Not to mention, it used a combination of magnetic coils and magnetic rails in order to fire, no Mass Effect whatsoever, _none_! But here's the thing, while there isn't any mass effect in her main gun, there was mass effect in her secondaries, which had a quite frankly astounding rate of fire, over one hundred rounds per minute. This thing when it opened fire with the secondaries just started firing so many rounds it was downright insane. Of course then their is one of the most concerning thing and that is the number of torpedoes this monster carries. It fired _two hundred forty_ spirits-damned torpedoes, hyper-velocity monsters at that in _one salvo_!" Quida explained, her worry and quite frankly awe at what one ship had been able to do clear.

"Spirits, one ship did that. I can see why you are concerned. Still that was probably their largest combat class and it seems to be built around being able to move fast and hit hard. What did it have for shielding and armor?" Sparatus asked.

"For armor, it had something fairly interesting. A molecularly enhanced metal composed of both a Titanium-Tungsten and Titanium-Tantalum alloy, plus it had reinforcing composed of single-walled carbon nanotubes, not to mention ultra-high temperature ceramics. As for shielding, that's the interesting part, she had near as we can tell from our scans an omni-directional shield made of photons excited to the point where they've become coherent." Quida said somewhat excitedly.

"Uh, without the technobabble please?" Sparatus asked as he tilted his head in confusion.

"In essence, the light photons have been excited to the point where it has become solid. It's light that's well hard." Quida explained and Sparatus nearly choked on the air he was breathing.

"How is that possible?!" He asked stunned.

"Unknown, the enemy ship self-destructed using nuclear weapons after she was disabled by the _Redemption_ , not much was left of it." Quida said, her mandibles forming a frown.

"They self-destructed? Do you think it was to prevent capture?" Sparatus asked as he frowned as well.

"Most certainly, however probe scouts have revealed that beyond Relay 314 is a star system with a singular Garden World. Judging from the few ships in orbit, it's likely their homeworld. Which means that pacifying this race should be relatively easy. That said, one of the probes spotted two ships of the same size as the first type we encountered, it's silhouette is similar but different." Quida said as a new holographic representation sprang up.

Sparatus whistled slightly, like the first design it was relatively bulky and slim, but it didn't go from slim to vaguely rectangular instead it maintained it's relative sleekness only bulking out towards the stern where the design became more trapezoidal. It shared the same vague tuning fork design, but whereas the first ship's tuning fork had been fairly blocky, this one's was sleeker and more rounded. Not to mention scans of the ship revealed that it did have an element zero core, which meant it would probably be on a vaguely even terms. Although if that ship was anything like the first monster, the absolute last thing they wanted to do was get in a short ranged slugging match, for it was probably _built_ for a fight like that. That said, it was also very similar to the first type of warship, which meant it had layered point-defenses, a decent number of secondary guns, a quite frankly insane number of missiles, and probably one of those omni-directional "hard light" barriers.

"I like the design, it's certainly simplistic and functional, not to mention if that thing has any decent amount of armor. A stern setup like that means that they can protect the thrusters pretty easily. Which means disabling something like that is going to be difficult. That said, I am relatively worried about the number of missiles they are shooting. Our Guardian lasers only have a range of about twelve thousand kilometers, which in terms of space warfare is ludicrously short and well they can throw a lot of missiles at us. It's not a favorable ratio in terms of how many they got compared to the rate of fire of our point-defenses." Sparatus said as he looked over the AAR that the CO of the 15th fleet had submitted.

"Indeed, that's why we are having our software engineers and laser technicinations working furiously to rewrite the software that our Guardian Lasers use. Changing them so that instead of the beams that they fire now, they cycle faster and fire pulses. We're probably going to lose some range, but the rate of fire increase should more than offset it. It looks good in simulations, real good but we won't know until we have to use them in actual combat." Quida said bluntly.

"Great," Sparatus said, before suddenly something she had said earlier leaped to the forefront of his mind. "Wait a minute! The armor that the ship had, all of those materials used. It would create an armor scheme that is relatively dense, highly refractive, and would withstand heat pretty well. It's almost as if that armor is designed to withstand plasma fire." he said.

Quida's mandibles flared with shock at the realization. "You don't seriously think? That these guys fought the Covenant before and _won_? But if they have, it would certainly explain their choices in armor and how hard their spinal guns hit. It's similar with our Dreadnoughts and Super-Dreadnoughts, which have spinal accelerators which fire ludicrously large shells at insane velocities with a relatively decent rate of fire so that way they have a chance of breaching there energy shields. However it could also be since they use nuclear weapons, that they are using an armor like that so the hull can keep the radiation out." she said.

"Your right, still far too many variables that we don't know about and I don't like it at all. How do our torpedoes fair against them?" Sparatus asked.

"Unknown, but it's at least as large as ours, maybe even more. If it's anything like our Guardian lasers it won't be that bad but if their point-defense lasers are anything like the Covenant Empire's pulse lasers, that answer will be poorly. I am leaning towards the latter since it has these smaller gun turrets that appear to mount rotary guns of some description, which might mean they probably serve a role similar to the Close-In-Weapon-Systems that are on our ancient "wet water" warships. Which means before a torpedo hits, it first has to get through the ECM, the point-defense pulse lasers, followed by the CIWS, then lastly it depends on whether the ship has one of those omni-directional "hard light" barriers, kinetic barriers, or energy shields. But if they are using energy shields, that's what the singularity warheads are for." Quida said and Sparatus shoulders slumped, no wonder his transfer to the reserves just got shot out the Mass Accelerator.

"So how is the fleet responding?" Sparatus asked.

"How they usually do whenever a Case: BARE JESTER gets declared. Nearest Expeditionary Fleet and Strike Fleet are deployed immediately and prepared for an immediate deployment respectively. With readiness levels across the board increased to their maximum peacetime levels, with all Strike and Line Fleets ready to deploy at a moment's notice. But something tells me that this is going to get very ugly, considering that one ship destroyed one cruiser, crew-killed another, and gave the Frigates and Destroyers a hell of a beating." Quida replied.

"So, I guess we are moving out probably by the end of the day. When are we going to arrive at the relay?" Sparatus asked.

"We are moving out at the end of day. It's another day to the relay and it'll probably take us a day or so to secure the planet plus spirits only know how long until the planet is secured. They won't go down without a fight, but despite that I just can't shake this feeling." Quida said shrugging.

"What feeling is that ma'am?" Sparatus asked curious.

"The feeling that we have absolutely no idea what we are getting into." Quida said.

* * *

It was such that nearly twenty hours later, the _Archer_ was maneuvering and forming up with her division, which was composed of six other _Gladiators_ just like she was. They formed up into a tight wing formation, with the _Archer_ at the point which indicated that she was the flagship of the division. This formation was merely one of nine such formations with two of these formations being composed of the frontline _Gladiator_ class Heavy Destroyer with the third being composed of brand new _Scythe_ class Heavy Destroyers, with the remaining formations of destroyers being _Brave_ class Light Destroyers.

Each wing in the fleet was composed of three frigate wolf packs two of light frigates and one of heavy frigates, three destroyer divisions with each wing getting one heavy destroyer division and two light destroyer divisions, two cruiser divisions with both heavy cruiser divisions being in the center and the remaining four light cruiser divisions split evenly between the flanking wings, the main combat core of each wing was a single five ship strong division of battleship supplemented in the case of the flanking wings a single dreadnought each and in the case of the central wing the fleet's flagship, a singular 1.3-kilometer long super-dreadnought. The fleet formed arrows within arrows, a prefect wedge designed to smash through enemy lines with extreme ease.

Bringing up the rear of the formation was a number of Dreadnought-sized ships in length and roughly as wide as a Light Cruiser and as tall as a Heavy Destroyer, but they weren't Dreadnoughts. Their singular light cruiser grade mass accelerator cannon, their fourteen Guardian Lasers, and through-hull flight decks indicated that much. These ships were instead Assault Ships, each Turian Legion had three such ships, two to carry the ten individual cohorts that were each nine-hundred fifty strong and ranged in roles from tanks to artillery to scouts to infantry, while the final assault ship carried the entire Legion's logistic support. Instead of Element Zero technology however, these ships had a thrumming heart that was an incredibly powerful Plasma Reactor which propelled the ship through mighty repulsor engines, while the Faster-Than-Light drives were slipspace drives. This tech while it had been developed by the Turians the designs upon which they were based were stolen from the Covenant Empire thanks to the Salarian Task Group. However the Turian design wasn't as fast as the Covenant drives, capable of only twenty light-years per day. But considering that they didn't have a size limit they could be built to be a lot bigger. Regardless, rumor had it that the next generation of Turian Super-Dreadnoughts were going a combination of Element Zero and Fusion tech.

Still, with an air of precision that spoke volumes of how highly trained the 6th Expeditionary fleet was, the Element Zero propelled ships and the Fusion Reactor propelled ships entered FTL in a seemingly hyper-corigazed dance flashes of blue light as the combat warships rocketed past the light-barrier and swirling portals opening accepting the assault ships as they battered their way into a different dimensional plane. Their arrival point calculated to occur within three seconds of each other in perfect formation.

Their initial destination? Relay 314.

Their target beyond Relay 314? The human colony world of Shanxi.


	3. Velint bellum, dabo em bellum

**AN: Here we go another chapter of The Reclaimer Effect, please I own nothing. So please keep the legal attack dogs, also known as Lawyers firmly muzzled and leashed.**

 **Also, to all of the people who say I am not following the Halo canon, there is one fact that you are missing, it's been nearly** _ **seventy-five**_ **years after the end of the Human-Covenant War the UNSC is going to be much more advanced. Not to mention, 600-ton projectile at 30-kilometers per second, that's only a 64-kiloton impact, which is bullshit when you got nukes that do more damage. If they are still using that after seventy-five years, whoever is in charge of R &D needs to be either shot or fired out of a MAC gun. Hence the lighter shells at higher velocities more destructive power, not to mention you can store more rounds aboard which means you can fire longer before having to retire and restock. Makes sense? Good.**

 **Velint bellum, dabo em bellum, Latin translates to: They want war, we'll give em war!**

* * *

 **0600 Hours, February 5th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System**

It hung in space, a tuning fork of quantum shielded metal fifteen kilometers long, a simple pair of revolving gyroscopic rings rested towards the back of the turning fork, these each five kilometers in diameter. Inside the rings was a massive amount Element Zero. It was the Shanxi-Theta Mass Relay.

Suddenly in the far distance beyond the relay, a brief ring of blue light that expanded outward appeared. Decelerating rapidly to a normal velocity came a simplistic ship, a rough rhombus in shape with two wings spreading out near the back. It was the Turian Heavy Frigate PFS _Storm King_.

As if that was the cue for the show to begin. Dozens of similar pulses began to occur, with each pulse birthing a Turian Warship. Everything from Light Frigates to the monstrous _Vulture_ class Super-Dreadnought, PFS _Thresher Maw_. Within moments of coming through the relay, the 6th Expeditionary Fleet rapidly formed up into a combat formation while from every ship that was a Heavy Frigate or bigger, _Besa_ class Aerospace Fighters launched.

There was a reason why the Turian Expeditionary Fleet was regarded by many to be the cream of the crop of the Turian Hierarchy. For they had an emphasis on relatively small units that had the ability to hit hard, yet remain relatively small allowing for them to react quick when the situation called for it.

On the bridge of the PFS _Thresher Maw_ , Lieutenant General Proruns Maxilianus watched with no small amount of satisfaction as his fleet formed up with the speed, precision, and grace that was expected of a Turian Expeditionary Fleet.

"We got seven long-range contacts breaking orbit from the third planet. Four matches to the ships seen by the recon probes! Sir, they are launching fighters and gunships from the looks of it. Three contacts do _not_ match the previous ones and they are bigger than the four other contacts!" A sensor officer shouted.

"Show me." Maxilianus said and an instant later the holographic map that displayed the current system they were in as well as the various markers for his fleet and the seven hostile markers of the enemy ships to displaying a three-dimensional representation of one of the warships. Sure enough four of the warships matched what the probe had seen.

A vague tuning fork design, with a relatively blocky stern, notable levels of Element Zero, and what he could only assume were secondary guns, point-defense lasers, and CIWS mounts, all told the four ships were roughly five hundred forty meters long. But one thing that caught his attention was the spinal armament. Two of the ships had what could only be a powerful spinally mounted Mass Accelerator Cannon but the other two ships had a simple iris that had opened and was now giving off radiation and thermal spikes. In an instant he was deeply concerned, he pulled up what files the Turian Hierarchy had on Covenant Empire weapons. He flicked to the file on the Plasma Particle Projector and compared the two profiles.

It was almost a perfect match. That would make things a little difficult, but not impossible. Granted those Plasma Particle Projectors had a pretty impressive range. But nothing that his fleet couldn't handle, he was positive. He tapped a control and the holographic representation of the enemy warship was replaced with a three-dimensional image of a the enemy gunships. They had sharp angular lines, what appeared to be two large wings which meant they could probably be used in the atmosphere of a planet as well. But all he could make out was that they had a bulking looking cannon mounted dorsally and each wing sported two missile pods and what looked like gun pods. Nothing too major, although if they did he couldn't tell from this range. One thing that did surprise him though was that computer couldn't figure out what the armor was made of, which never happened at this range. It put him on guard.

He flicked to the first of the unknowns and his mandibles flared slightly in shock. The design was completely different to the other four unknowns, it was vaguely shaped like an arrowhead from the front, not to mention it was a good deal bigger than the other ships, a good six hundred thirty meters long. The ship mounted what appeared to be dual recessed mass accelerators, it also appeared to have several turret gun batteries as well as the same layered point-defenses that the other ships had. However this ship had only a little bit of Element Zero, mostly located in the turreted gun batteries and their was sufficient levels of it scattered throughout the ship's hull to indicate that she had kinetic barriers. But that also meant no mass-lightening, which meant they were a weak point to exploit in the hostile fleet. Unlike the four smaller ships however, the armor composition came back as an alloy composed of many different heavy metals and composites, with high heat tolerance and ablative properties. Designed to defeat plasma from the looks of it.

The last enemy warship was again shaped like the second enemy ship-type, but it was even bigger, almost low-end Dreadnought sized, coming in at according to sensors a good seven hundred thirty meters long, but due to the fact this ship shared its shape with the two 630-meter long ships it made him realize that this was an evolution of the design. Like the first ship type, she had a noticeable Element Zero core, but like the second-type had dual recessed mass accelerator cannons but located under the mass accelerators was again an open iris of a plasma particle projector. She also had strangely shaped turreted guns with four prongs and layered point-defenses. The spectroscopic analysis for the ship's armor composition, like the four tuning fork shaped ships, came up inconclusive.

He flicked to the fighters and grimaced. They looked like trouble, with their slender forms, being vaguely dart shaped, roughly twelve meters long, with what looked like two thin and relatively short forward swept wings. They appeared to have two chin guns and four wing guns, although two of the wing guns were different in shape. Which had him slightly concerned, another thing that had him worried was the number of the things, they didn't outnumber his fighters but he didn't know how they would stack up.

The last type of fighter was small flying wing, twelve meters long by fifteen meters wide. Judging by the acceleration profile it had pretty powerful thrusters and had element zero, but judging by the maneuvers they were pulling they weren't manned fighters. Which meant they were drones, wonderful.

He watched as the enemy ships formed a wide wedge with two-thousand kilometers of spacing between each ship. Far enough apart where something like a well placed nuke wouldn't be able to destroy multiple ships at once, but close enough that they could form interlocking fields of fire for flak and make his life hell in terms of getting torpedoes to hit. They hung roughly one hundred seventy thousand kilometers out, the main planet hung ninety thousand kilometers behind them, several scenarios began playing out in his head.

"Attack wings two and three. Get ready for sweeping pincer attack on my mark, attack wing one we are going to go right down their throats. Singularity torpedoes and heavy mass accelerator rounds are authorized, we're going to cut them from the sky quickly and efficiently." Maxilianus ordered.

The engine blocks of the Turian Warships blazed with light and warships accelerated, while at the same time the two flanking wings separated slightly from the central wing putting ten thousand kilometers between themselves and the central wing, ready to swing in on the flanks of the hostile ships.

"Almost in range for all ships! Heavy rounds selected, singularity torpedoes loaded and ready to fire. We got a lock, weapons are hot, removing final safeties now! Ready to ruin someone's day at your command, sir!" The chief weapons officer reported as the lead enemy ship flashed red, indicating lock on.

"Enemy FTL-sensors locking on! Vastly different from our stuff, engaging defensive countermeasures!" A sensor officer reported.

"All ships, commence firing!" Maxilianus ordered sharply and a moment later a rumble ran through the deck plating of the _Thresher Maw_ as the Super-Dreadnought's two massive spinal mass accelerator cannons fired, each one hurling a six hundred kilogram slug at a velocity of fifty-five-thousand kilometers per second followed by several more rumbles as the four battleship grade mass accelerators in each of the ship's wings lent their own fire each sending a seventy-kilogram slug on an first class express ticket ride at fifty-five thousand kilometers per second, this was joined by a series of rapid fire thumps as torpedoes were hurled by electromagnetic rails out of their tubes, their micro-fusion drives engaged and they rocketed forward.

The shots from the _Thresher Maw_ hit first, the rounds slammed into the lead enemy ship delivering ten hammer blows in rapid succession, two of them each delivering 216.89-megatons of destructive force while the other eight delivered a series of 25.3-megaton blows and Maxilianus's heart leaped into his throat as the distinctive blue-gold hexagonal flaring of energy shields erupted along the bow, effortlessly deflecting the blows. This fight just got a lot more difficult, because while energy shields had higher energy requirements, they could take way more of a pounding before failing.

The rest of the initial mass accelerator cannon strike went similarly, the four smaller ships had energy shields as well, but like he had suspected the two intermediate ships only had kinetic barriers judging by the all to familiar flash of kinetic barriers. "All ships, maintain fire with mass accelerators. Wear down those energy shields." he ordered as the _Thresher Maw_ 's twin spinal main guns fired again followed shortly by the wing guns, keeping up deep bass to the content humming of the ship's ezero core. The beginnings of an orchestra of space war.

It was at that moment, the flanks and bows of enemy ships erupted in fire and hot gases; missiles and torpedoes by there hundreds were sent rocketing their way. At the same moment, the enemy fighters, gunships, and drones raced in for the attack. "Shoot those missiles and aerospace craft down!" Maxilianus thundered and that's when spirits themselves decided to throw him a curveball, for the hostile ships suddenly had their engine banks explode with light and they started accelerating _towards_ the central wing. That's when it got even more interesting as the enemy secondaries engaged, blue colored slugs roared into void hot on the heels of orange bolts of light.

Numerous silent explosions began to dot to space as with flashes of red, the GUARDIAN Lasers engaged the hostile missiles and torpedoes. Punching them into hazy balls of vapor, but their was just so many missiles and not enough GUARDIAN Laser banks to stop the horde.

Then even as the torpedoes began detonating two thousand kilometers away and several frigates and light destroyers suddenly began immolating themselves from the inside out for suddenly no reason. The tidal wave of orange bolts of light and slugs impacted, resulting in hull plates blackening and cracking as if they were exposed to high heat in the case of the orange bolts of light and causing with both round types the kinetic barriers to flare and sparkle. Missiles detonated and unleashed beams of energy that either caused kinetic barrier to come into brilliant existence as they struggle to stop the energy, while hull plating vaporized under the intense heat or muscled past the kinetic barriers and punched a deep wound into the ship.

The light from the missiles and torpedoes exploding was just beginning to fade when suddenly the enemy ships fired their spinal mounts a salvo of eight monstrous slugs claimed seven cruisers, the eighth round however slammed into the _Thresher Maw_ , which resulted in a tremendous shuddering _boom_ that caused the ship to shake violently as the round was deflected by the Super-Dreadnought's incredibly strong kinetic barriers. The impact force nearly caused Maxilianus to loose his footing and judging by the stream of curses he heard, his yeoman and executive officer weren't as fortunate, having been thrown off their feet.

Then a moment later three beams of blinding blue-white light with a faint silver tint to it speared a pair of battleships and a heavy cruiser resulting in all three ships exploding in an eye watering flash.

"Report!" he barked.

"Kinetic Barriers at eighty-five percent! That was a hell of a hit, our shields are regenerating but we can't take make many hits like that in rapid succession!" the defensive measures officer shouted.

"1st Heavy Cruiser Maniple has suffered eighty percent casualties! 2nd Light Destroyer Maniple has suffered forty percent losses! Plus the 10th Light Frigate Maniple is just _gone_!" someone else shouted.

" _Leviathan_ and _Domination_ have been destroyed with all hands!" a second officer added in.

"Our torpedoes are beginning to get intercepted! Hostile point-defense fire is starting to take them with thirty-five thousand kilometers between them and there targets!" A weapons officer shouted.

"Damn! All ships advance, close the range! Execute the pincer now!" Maxilianus barked as the enemy ships fired their spinal batteries again, claiming more ships and having two rounds slam into the _Thresher Maw_ 's kinetic barriers, which held but were badly depleted.

* * *

 **0625 Hours, February 5th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, over Shanxi III, engaging hostiles**

 **Lieutenant Naso Demitrov Petrov, call sign Slayer Leader**

Lieutenant Naso Petrov fixed a hard glare at his scope, the enemy had a shit ton of fighters. They appeared to be relatively small fry, dart shaped craft. "Slayer leader to all fighters, prepare to engage! Range 1,000 kilometers, eight hundred kilometers, seven hundred kilometers, six hundred kilometers weapons free! Fox three! Fox three!" he barked as he got tone on multiple enemy fighters and hit the firing studs. The F/A-70 Tanto shuddered as it's twin pulse missile launchers each spat three missiles, all along the line similar scenes occurred as more pulse missiles were launched.

He watched as the enemy fighters well organized formation scattered, the craft throwing themselves into wild maneuvers, trying frantically to dodge the incoming missiles. Which effortlessly followed their movements and considering that they seemed to be lacking ECM, it was no surprise when the missiles impacted causing numerous silent explosions to splash across the weak kinetic barriers of the alien fighters and sent them flickering.

In the time it had taken the missiles to impact, the wave of human fighters and drones had closed the range on the enemy fighters. Which promptly powered forward, their Mass Accelerators blazing. The smaller blue streaks from the fighter grade Mass Accelerators adding to the already impressive party.

"Slayer team, break formation but try and keep each other covered!" Petrov barked as the two fighter formations merged. He snapped his fighter through a one-hundred eighty degree turn and quickly spotted his first victim. He slide the acceleration stripe forward and the _Tanto_ bounded forward racing towards his quarry.

The enemy fighter saw him and turned to face him. It's dual mass acceleration cannons blazed, hurling slugs who knew how big towards him. He reacted on instinct, having his fighter sidestep to port and he promptly brought the piper on target and then hit the firing studs. The Tanto shook as the fighter's four hard-light cannons roared into the void, streams of orange hard light bolts streaked to the fighter which side-stepped itself and fired again. Mass accelerator rounds this time connected with the Tanto, the fighter quivered under the impacts of the rounds and dropped the fighter's energy shields by a quarter.

Snarling, Petrov slid the acceleration strip back and brought the Tanto around hard, the gees pressed him into his seat and he quickly spotted the enemy fighter. It was coming at him again, obviously surprised that he was still up. He brought the piper back onto the target and fired again.

This time the burst was on target. The hard light bolts tore through the kinetic barriers with ease and snapped the fighter right in half. "Splash one!" Petrov announced over the radio.

" _Pick up the pace boss! Some of us are already on our third or fourth kills!_ " Slayer Five replied.

" _I got three on my tail and I can't shake him!_ " Slayer Three yelled, the momentous beeping of the energy shield nearing depletion alarm audible in the background.

"I am coming hang on Slayer Three!" Petrov said as he altered course and flicked the acceleration stripe all the way forward, his fighter rocketed toward the Tanto in trouble. As he did so, another Tanto from the looks of it one belonging to the _Edsall_ streaked past his nose, the entire back end of the craft in flames. He quickly spotted the fighter responsible which was peeling away going after another Tanto, in the process shredding a Wallaby UCAV, he locked onto the thing with his H.M.D and fired a pair of missiles.

The energy warheads rocketed upwards and effortlessly tracked the fighter. The first one slammed into kinetic barriers and exploded relatively harmlessly. The second one hit the hull directly and the resulting blast turned the dagger shaped craft into confetti. "Slayer leader to all fighters, missiles are incredibly effective. Two missiles required to splash enemy fighters." he announced as he sweeped in, dropping in the negative z-direction at the sametime behind the three fighters that were behind Slayer Three.

It only took a few seconds, the first two fighters died before they could even react to the threat coming in behind them. Two pulse missiles turned one fighter into shrapnel and a long burst of hard light cannon fire snapped the other in half, sending it hurtling out of control. Slayer Three suddenly spun his fighter on it's x-axis and sprayed the other fighter with hard light rounds and it simply disintegrated.

" _There's so many of them! They go down easily but numbers are -_ " Echo leader started to say before he was suddenly cut off amid a strangled burst of static.

" _Holy crap! Enemy warships charging! One of them just vaporized Echo leader!_ " Bravo Two shouted.

Petrov glanced at his radar display and swore. Sure enough the enemy was charging, trying to close the range. This was going to complicate matter greatly as he swung upwards towards a pair of enemy fighters with Slayer Three right behind him.

The fighters were chasing a Gunship, which was trying to evade their fire for all of their worth. To no avail, the entire port engine assembly on the wing exploded, sending the big and bulky gunship into a wild spin.

The two enemy fighters broke away from their quarry and then dove towards him and opened fire. Mass accelerator rounds streaked forth, blue streaks across the blackness of space. Suddenly both fighters were punched into a lazy balls of vapor as a singular green beam pierced each one.

But almost immediately three fighters came from the side, their cannons blazing. Petrov brought his fighter around ninety degrees so that his nose and guns were facing the enemy. He sighted one fighter up and Slayer Three sighted a different one up and they fired, streaks of orange light was birthed forth from the cannons on the Tantos.

The kinetic barriers flared and died allowing the light mass rounds to rip the dagger shaped craft to ribbons. The remaining fighter flipped one hundred degrees and then with a brief pulse of blue flashed into FTL?

"Jesus, they got real space FTL on those fighters." Petrov remarked.

" _Yeah they do._ _Let's get back into the furball._ " Slayer Three remarked and both Tantos raced back into the fray.

Both pilots knew that they were likely going to die, but they were going to try and reap as many hostile fighters as possible. With a brief flash from their engines, the Phaeton derived fighters rocketed forward, racing back into the fray.

* * *

 **0930 Hours, February 5th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, in orbit of Shanxi III, Shanxi**

 **Onboard UNSC** _ **Samuel B. Roberts**_

The _Samuel B. Roberts_ was shaking almost constantly from mass accelerator impacts now, the intensity of each hit giving her crew an idea of what sort of round had hit her. Her particle pulse cannons, pulse lasers, and rotary hard light cannons all voiced their fury at the enemy ships.

"Report!" Rasam shouted as the _Samuel B. Roberts_ quaked again, this time far more violently and the ship rolled hard to port.

"Shields at fifteen percent and dropping, we are starting to get pinpoint breaches!" The defensive officer replied.

"I can only raise one of our fighters and all of our drones have been shot down!" the air boss barked.

"Inferno missile stocks down to forty percent, _Nike_ class torpedo stocks at three percent, all _Thanatos_ class missiles expended, we still got our _Shivas_ and _Terminators_ however." the weapons officer said.

"Busy day." Rasam grunted as the _Samuel B. Roberts_ shook again.

"Captain, we cannot stay here. Our chances of our armor holding under this barrage is at approximately five percent." Starman added.

"Damn, navigation! Prepare tactical slipspace!" Rasam ordered.

"We got bigger problems sir! Hostile cruiser analogues, three of them are making a run at us!" the sensor officer called out.

"Damnit, status on energy projector?" Rasam asked as he eyed the ships and the tactical plot. It was chaos, the battle had degenerated into a brawl several hours ago and not by the UNSC's choice, the enemy had quickly closed range to within less than five thousand kilometers, which considering that battles were usually fought in excess of fifty thousand kilometers this was an all out brawl, plus they were now using their superior speed and agility to run relative rings around the _Edsall_ and _Running Riot_ not to mention leaving the other UNSC ships struggling to fight the enemy and support the _Edsall_ and _Running Riot_.

"Coil charge at eighty percent and rising at eight percent every five seconds!" The weapons officer shouted.

"Good enough! Dead-center targeting on the lead cruiser, _fire_!" Rasam thundered and a moment later with a powerful rumbling thrum that was not only felt through the deck plating but heard as a low rumble like thunder in the distance, the _Samuel B. Roberts_ fired her energy projector. A blinding blue-white silver tinged beam of raw power leaped forth from the Light Frigate's bow and crossed the range to the lead hostile cruiser in an instant, the kinetic barriers flashed briefly then failed resulting in a brief flash of light as the energy beam cored through ship from stem to stern with ease and bisected the reactor causing the ship to explode.

"That's a hard-kill!" Starman grinned.

The other two cruisers swung around to either side to strafe the ship, their broadside guns blazing. Mass accelerator rounds slammed into the ship's rapidly weakening shields.

The _Robert_ 's ten Z-8630 Particle Pulse Cannons opened fire, sending a stream of orange particle pulses, each a disc shaped bolt of destruction howling towards the alien warships. Kinetic barriers flashed and sparkled violently as they stopped the kinetic force, but hull began to blacken under the heat of bolts. Green laser beams stitched across the enemy hulls and within moments vaporized hull material began streaming off the ships.

Then the _Samuel B. Roberts_ heaved violently and the deck bucked angrily. "We're holed! Deck ten, section seven! Sealing now! Inferno missile pod five and six destroyed while pods eight through ten are offline due to damage!" Ops shouted over the tremendous racket of metal rending and tearing that echoed up from beneath them.

The _Roberts_ swung around as the two hostile cruisers finished their strafing run. "Blow those bastards out of the sky! Fire Inferno pods twenty-three through twenty-eight! Three pods for each ship!" Rasam growled as the two hostiles swept around for another run.

"Firing now!" Weps replied as a series of rapid-fire thumps ran through the decking and hundreds of missiles were thrown into the void, their engines engaging. Dozens of vapor trails streaked towards the hostiles and laser fire reached out and punched at least half of their number into hazy balls of vapor.

Then they detonated, dozens of blinding fireballs engulfed both cruisers. As the light cleared, it revealed both cruisers were dead, one had been snapped in half and the other was laid open from the stem to stern.

"Targets destroyed!" Weps announced.

"Good, initiate tactical slipspace jump!" Rasam ordered and a moment later, the slipspace drive hummed and a swirling portal opened in front of the frigate. She shot into it and disappeared from the center of the brawl and reappeared four-hundred thousand kilometers outside of it.

"Jump complete!" Navigation announced.

"Get those shields recharged and get me a damage report!" Rasam ordered.

"Those rounds had a sabot alloy sheath surrounding a depleted uranium core. Our armor isn't the thickest to begin with, only ten centimeters of starship grade Kavacha. According to sensors, we took at least six individual rounds that each weighed twenty kilograms and were going some 5,000 kilometers per second, meaning we just took the equal to at least six fifty-nine kiloton ton bombs along a section of armor about twelve meters long. The round or rounds that penetrated punched through the armor and then plowed through a half dozen compartments before stopping. We got spalling damage in three compartments beyond that and severe structural damage all throughout decks ten, eleven, and twelve sections seven and eight. Ah, shit, portside omni-directional hard light generator was destroyed in the salvo as well." Ops said.

Hackett whistled. "Damn, in order for them to do that, the cycle time on those guns must be damned impressive." he said.

"Agreed, status on shields and the energy projector?" Rasam asked.

"Shields are at forty-five percent and climbing." Ops announced.

"Energy Projector at twenty percent charge, climbing at five percent every five seconds." Weps announced.

"Good enough." Rasam said before glancing at the tactical plot and making a decision. "The _Pony Express_ is in trouble with these hostile battleships! Initiate tactical slipspace jump! Bring us in behind those warships!" He ordered and the bridge crew leaped to their tasks, while on the tactical plot five enemy markers were highlighted.

A moment later, the warship's slipspace drive hummed as it built up a charge the sound merging near seamlessly with the rumble of the reactor. A slipspace rupture opened and the ship disappeared from her location outside the brawl and reappeared back inside of it, less than one hundred kilometers away from the five hostile battleships which were pounding the _Pony Express_ with their mass accelerator cannons ruthlessly, while the frigate retaliated with her particle pulse cannons, pulse lasers, MAC gun, the occasional missile salvo, and the odd torpedo spread. The warship got lucky with a spread of torpedoes, several got through the point defense and exploded, delivering their lethal Casaba Howitzers in blinding spheres of light.

When they faded, it revealed that the hostile warship had cracked open from the stem to stern and was in the process of breaking up in seemingly slow motion, atmosphere rushing out of the breaches.

" _Pony Express_ in trouble!" someone said as with a final flare, the ship's energy shields dimmed, flickered feebly, and then died entirely. The ship's omni-directional hardlight barrier came online, which started to get pounded mercilessly.

"Locked-on target! Energy projector at forty-five percent charged!" Weps announced.

"It'll do! Roast his ass, _fire_!" Rasam barked and the energy projector voiced it's silent fury at the alien battleship analog that was beginning to go evasive. The kinetic barriers flashed brilliantly and then failed, allowing the beam to tear first through a plume of vaporized cosmetic outer hull-plating, then the armor and into the hull beyond. The battleship heaved violently with explosive decompressions and internal explosions as the majority of her compartments were opened to space, the ship's thrusters and lights went out and she started drifting out of the fight.

The remaining three alien battleships scattered, two used their superior speed and agility to flank the _Pony Express_ which promptly accelerated, shifting her ezero core to mass lightning and tried to flee out of the pincher while her secondary guns and pulse lasers fired at her tormentors. The other battleship engaged the _Samuel B. Roberts_.

It wasn't enough, caught in a crossfire and only able to protect one side of the ship with Omni-directional hard light barrier. The _Pony Express_ was quite simply cut to pieces, Kavacha Battleplate fragmented and tumbled through space, the ship heaved as compartments were ripped to shreds as well as opened to hard vacuum and internal supports were destroyed. Several rounds slammed into the ship's stern and the _Pony Express_ vanished in an eye-searing flash of light and radiation.

The situation on the _Samuel B. Roberts_ was degenerating rapidly. The frigate was maneuvering wildly, taking pot shots at the enemy when she could, but staying still for too long would allow the now three hostile battleships to cut her to pieces. There was an extraordinarily loud _boom_ that shook the ship.

"Hull breach! Deck twelve, section fifteen! We've lost a CIWS mount and a pair of pulse lasers! Inferno missile pods fifteen through eighteen either offline or destroyed, hard light barrier on the verge of failing entirely!" Ops shouted as a quartet of rounds muscled past the armor and punched deep into the frigate.

"Enough is enough! Weps, nuclear launch mission, dry launch a _Terminator_ at those bastards! Set for remote detonation!" Rasam snarled angrily as the _Samuel B. Roberts_ , despite having her Omni-Directional Hard light barrier up the amount of energy getting pumped into it was too much and was on the verge of failing, afterward the ship would suffer a similar fate to the _Pony Express_.

Hackett nearly failed to stifle a vicious swear and Rasam didn't when another UNSC ship, the _Event Horizon_ 's marker winked out and a small number appeared next to her name, the number of escape pods that had launched. A quick glance at the cameras pointed in her direction revealed her fate, ripped to pieces by the enemy's incredibly powerful flagship escorted by a group of destroyers in a vee formation. It plowed through her debris field, the thing's kinetic barriers sparking and flaring, while it's main guns voiced their wrath at the _Crimson Typhoon_ which turned away from a broadside duel that had left several enemy cruisers either crippled or destroyed and one heavily damaged in order to face down the enemy warship wing.

" _Terminator_ ready to launch!" Weps announced.

"Fire!" Rasam rumbled and with muffled _thump_ that rang through the hull, electromagnetic rails hurled a missile some twenty-five meters long and fifteen meters wide out of it's specially designed launch tube. But since it was dry launched, it's engine didn't engage and thus relied on it's initial velocity obtained from the launch to head towards it's target.

"Get us away from those bastards! Roll ship, bring fresh hard light barrier generators to bear!" Rasam ordered sharply.

"Aye sir! Rolling ship and moving away from hostile warships! Hang on!" The helmsman said and the frigate rolled on her X-Axis, now showing her dorsal side to the alien warships and her engines flared causing her to accelerate away from the hostiles. The deck was still quivering under impacts and rattling as her particle pulse cannons fired at enemy.

"Vampire! Vampire! Vampire! Incoming missiles!" Ops shouted as each battleship unleashed eight missiles which rocketed towards the _Samuel B. Roberts_.

"Starman!" Rasam ordered tersely.

"On it!" Starman replied as dozens of green beams were suddenly birthed by the point-defense turrets and the CIWS mounts began vomiting out hard light projectiles at an insane rate. Instantly missiles began dying, punched out of existence and into balls of vapor by the lasers. Out of the twenty-four missiles launched by the aliens, not one got within three hundred kilometers of the damaged frigate.

Rasam glanced at his tactical plot and grinned, the _Terminator_ was practically underneath one of the alien warships. He keyed the command and a blinding flash of radiation and light engulfed all three ships in 800-megatons of antimatter catalyzed thermonuclear fusion and the heliacious onslaught of fire ceased. The fireball thinned and cooled, revealing that not one hostile warship had survived the blast. They'd all been vaporized by the point-blank detonation.

"Captain, more trouble coming our way, looks like two light cruiser analogues supporting an enemy dreadnought analogue." Starman said.

"Great, status of shields?" Rasman asked.

"Shields are regenerating, currently at six percent and climbing, it'll be awhile before they are of any use again. Hard light barrier capacity is only at twenty-two percent for the starboard facing, seventy percent for the dorsal facing, port facing is offline with no hope on getting back, first couple of hits we took destroyed the generator, ventral and bow facings are at one hundred percent." Ops said.

"Alright, let's put our game faces on people. Ahead full military thrust, secondaries and missile batteries engage at will. We got a capital ship to fry." Rasam said and the bridge crew leaped to their tasks.

Then it all changed. "Where the hell? Hostile warship bearing 0195, inclination positive 035, range two thousand kilometers! She's" Starman began to say before things dissolved into chaos as a full mass accelerator salvo from an alien Heavy Destroyer analogue smashed into the _Samuel B. Roberts_ , this was followed up by a spread of disruptor torpedoes, by some miracle point-defense got all but one despite the short range.

The resulting explosion caused the frigate to shake so violently that First Lieutenant Steven Hackett was thrown to the deck while amid a gigantic scream of tearing metal as a large beam ripped itself from the floor and tore through Lt. Commander Rasam's legs and upper torso with ease, resulting in a tremendous spray of blood and gore. He shakily stood up, noting that the deck was rattling as the ship's particle pulse cannons unleashed hell at the bastard responsible for clobbering them.

"You alright, captain?" Starman asked.

"I am fine, status report?" Hackett replied as a new weight settled across his shoulders, not one of physical weight but the metaphorical weight and chains of command. He set his shoulders and braced for the worse, ignoring the biting pain in his side from where he had likely broken a rib.

"Dorsal and ventral omni-directional hard light barriers have had it, decks two through ten, section twenty through thirty have been exposed to hard vacuum, the amount of blast damage we have suffered is incredible as well. Inferno pods thirty-eight through fifty are either offline or destroyed thanks to those hits, auxiliary life support is gone, as is the auxiliary fire control center and damage control center. Two pulse laser turrets and two CIWS mounts are also either offline or destroyed. We got a full ninety people unaccounted for." Starman said and Hackett swore, his first command ever and it was because the CO was dead and the ship was shot to hell. Not the way he imagined him getting his first command, but it was time to step up to the plate.

"Status on hostile destroyer?" Hackett asked as the helmsman maneuvered the _Samuel B. Roberts_ away from the three hostile ships that were closing in. A wise decision, Hackett noted.

"It buggered off after it's shields failed and they caught four particle bolts in the flank. We probably won't be seeing him again." Starman said.

"Good, prepare tactical slipspace. Get us into low orbit of Shanxi. We won't be able to hold for much longer, the transports gotta go now and we'll cover them as they flee." Hackett ordered.

"Yes sir!" The helmsman and comms officer said in unison. The ship's slipspace drive hummed to life as it charged. Hackett glanced at the tactical display and grimaced. The _Edsall_ , _Running Riot_ , and _Crimson Typhoon_ all had damage of varying severity while the _So much for Subtlety_ had major damage and from the way she was moving had suffered damage to her reactors or thrusters.

"Drive is hot!" Starman announced.

"Jump!" Hackett said and the _Samuel B. Roberts_ heavily damaged form left the brawl which was in its final stages and reappeared in low orbit of Shanxi.

"Jump complete!" Ops announced.

"Get that drive recharged on the double, signal the transports we got maybe thirty minutes before all that stands between Shanxi and a bunch of hostile aliens is one battered _Epee_ class Light Frigate. They got to go now! What's the status of the energy projector?" Hackett barked.

"Yessir! Drive recharging." Helm replied.

"Shanxi CENTCOM has been notified, all transports are going through final pre-flight checks or are starting to lift off. Grand total of people who has been evacuated, is roughly 220,000 thousand people." Comms said and Hackett swore loudly along with several other members of the bridge crew, they were being forced to leave eighty-thousand civilians behind.

"Energy projector is at thirty percent and climbing, soon we'll be able to annihilate damn near anything that tries to engage us." Weps announced.

"Good, get me a channel to the _Crimson Typhoon_." Hackett said.

A moment later, on holotank two; the face of Commander Sagira appeared. She had certainly seen better days; her forehead had a bloody gash across it and judging by how crooked her nose was, had been broken probably in a fall. Her eyes gleamed with surprise and a little anger. "Lieutenant Hackett? Where's Lieutenant Commander Rasam, and more importantly where the hell is the _Samuel B. Roberts_?" she asked stunned.

"Lieutenant Commander Rasam is dead ma'am, I've assumed command. As for where the _Samuel B. Roberts_ is, we're currently in low orbit over the city of Badate. We won't be able to hold for much longer, the evacuation transports have got to go now even though the evacuation isn't done. I've positioned the _Samuel B. Roberts_ in such location that we will be able to protect the transports as they claw out of Shanxi's atmosphere and gravity well." Hackett said

Sagira sighed. "Hackett, the moment that those transports jump. I want the _Samuel B. Roberts_ to jump as well. So that everyone back home knows how hard we fought to protect the colony." she ordered grimly.

"Yes ma'am!" Hackett barked as he saluted, which Sagira returned and then the connection promptly cut. Leaving the bridge crew to do nothing but fix the brawl with an angry glare.

* * *

 **0945 Hours, February 5th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **In orbit of Shanxi**

 **Onboard the PFS** _ **Archer**_

Upper Lieutenant Sparatus ran onto the bridge of the _Archer_ , coming up from several decks below, in order to coordinate damage control. He grimaced at the sight, several consoles had blown out, the galaxy map was ruined, several beams had either torn through floor or collapsed from the ceiling. The bridge was a disaster area, which considering the hits that they had taken just a few minutes ago wasn't surprising.

"Lieutenant!" A weak voice called out to his left. Sparatus looked to his left and swore, Lieutenant Commander Quida was down. She had a medic attending to her, but even he could see that it was bad. A jagged piece of metal as long as his forearm was embedded deep into her torso.

"Captain, what happened?" Sparatus asked as he trotted over and kneeled down next to her. He wasn't sure what had happened because one minute he had been helping DAMCON clear a jam in one of the two spinal Mass Acceleration cannons that the ship had, the next he had been down on the deck as the ship shook so violently even he had lost his footing.

"The enemy hit us with some sort of particle weapon. They tore down our shields incredibly quick and even before then had started to deal lots of heat damage to the exterior plating and-" Quida stopped speaking for a moment as she coughed violently, blue blood splattered onto the deck. "And armor-plating. I ordered us to disengage, but our shields failed and we got hit several times." she said weakly, coughing again more violently this time, and more blood splattered onto the deck.

"What were they using then?" Sparatus asked, he looked at the medic who shook his head. There was nothing that could be done, dammit.

"Spirits, I wish I knew. Whatever it was" Quida coughed again, more blood splattered. "It tore through our armor like it wasn't their and did incredible damage. Quite frankly, it's a spirits-damned miracle it didn't snap us in half." she said, before her head lolled back and took one last rattling breath.

Sparatus whispered a brief prayer to the Spirits to watch over Quida's soul and then gently closed her eyes. Before standing up, clenching his fists, taking a deep breath, and then stepping to the command podium. The _Archer_ was his ship now, he had taken a number of command courses in order to earn this posting as the executive officer and had been trained to assume command if the worst happened, but had never thought that it _would_.

"Status report." He said in a calm, cool, and collected voice.

"The portside wing mass accelerator cannon as well as both of the portside wing torpedo tubes are offline due to damage, the loading mechanism for both spinal mass accelerators has been damaged, reloading speed increased, same goes for the four spinal torpedo launchers. Out of our five portside hull GUARDIAN Laser banks, four are offline and it's a similar story for both the main hull dorsal and ventral facings which only have two and three GUARDIAN Laser banks still active, and the portside wing has lost all of it's GUARDIAN Laser banks. The starboard side hull mounted laser banks are looking okay, we got three still active and the same goes for the wing mounted laser banks out of the six the three on the dorsal side are all good and two of the three on the ventral side are good. Same goes for the starboard side wing mass accelerator cannon and torpedo tubes." The chief weapons officer reported.

"We got hull breaches on decks five, six, and seven. Auxiliary fire control center destroyed, shuttle bay destroyed, all tertiary battery back-up banks destroyed, one of the secondary fusion cores has scrammed as well. Ammunition stocks for wing mass accelerators stands at twenty percent, spinal mass accelerators stands at twenty-three percent, torpedoes stands at fifteen percent, and our nearly worthless deployable decoys stand at five percent. Most of our portside kinetic barrier emitters are done as well. We have a full fifty people out of our crew of a hundred fifty missing." Ops said.

"Damn, so the _Archer_ is low on ammunition and heavily damaged. Alright, not that it matters, we are going to do our job." Sparatus muttered before giving his next set of orders as he glanced at the TAC Map. "Bring us about to bearing 285, inclination +54 degrees, full forward military thrust." he ordered.

"Sir, that puts us on an attack vector against tango five." A sensor officer said.

"I know that, but we are going to take that spirits-damned thing out." Sparatus said as he eyed the holographic representation of the target. A heavily battered, vague tuning fork design that had probably lost it's main gun. "Load singularity torpedoes, set fuse for contact detonation." he said.

The crew sprang to their tasks while the deck plates rumbled under his feet and the _Archer_ shot forward, swinging around and bringing her nose up, climbing up and towards her prey, which was engaged with the last frigate division in the fleet and was currently tearing it apart. However, judging by the numerous gashes in her armor the ship had lost her shields as well as her "hard light" barrier.

"Target her bridge! Mass accelerators commence firing!" Sparatus snarled as the ship closed to 1,500-kilometers.

"Firing now!" The weapons officer said and the deck plating rattled as the _Archer_ 's three remaining mass accelerator cannons voiced their fury. The slugs got their nearly instantaneously and the ship's bridge tower dissolved in a blinding white flash as using their immense velocity, transferred an insane amount of kinetic energy to the target, detonating equal to several good-sized nukes in its face, not much that he knew of could survive that. "Target hit! Shots on target, targeted structure destroyed!" Weps cheered.

Sparatus pounded his fist on the railing. "Finish them! Fire torpedoes, full spread! Once torpedoes are away break us off and head for these ships!" he roared, while highlighting a group of three enemy ships, all of their heavy hitters.

Series of thumps rang through the hull and the six remaining torpedo tubes each fired three torpedoes, which streaked towards the enemy warship. Their fusion torches ablaze and then the _Archer_ flipped one hundred eighty degrees and her main engines fired and quickly overcame her forward velocity and arched away from the enemy. Sparatus switched to the aft cameras just in time to watch the three remaining frigates fired their own torpedoes. In an instant the hostile retaliated with pulse laser fire and instantly started killing torpedoes, punched into lazy balls of vapor. None of the torpedoes fired by the frigates got past the hostile's initial defensive fire cauldron but four torpedoes from the _Archer_ did succeed.

That's when the ship's CIWS batteries came to life, hurling bolts of yellow light into the void. Two torpedoes died immediately, ripped apart as well as melted simultaneously by the CIWS fire and a moment later a laser pulse speared another but the last missile succeeded in hitting it's target.

Sparatus knew that the Singularity torpedo had three components to it's warhead which made it incredibly dangerous. The warhead cone flattened against the ship's armor, the immense amount of kinetic energy that was being imparted into the target would deal significant damage by itself. But in the next instant, a massive positive electrical charge arched through an element zero core roughly the size of a watermelon. Now since element zero has negative mass and provides power through the application of a negative current, anything dealing with a positive current is very, _very_ bad. A twenty-meter wide singularity erupted along the flank of the enemy warship and began tearing it to shreds, gravitational sheer and stresses produced by a singularity torpedo's singularity was a nasty son of a bitch and this time proved to be no different as the ship visibly bent and began breaking apart, with the majority of the smaller pieces getting consumed by a black hole and some trying to form an acceration disk. However this sort of black hole could only live for a short period of time thanks to a level of physics that Sparatus didn't understand at all, but once it's mass dropped below a certain point the black hole would violently convert it's remaining mass into energy and radiation or in layman's terms simply blow up. With a terrifying flash that consumed the warship in its entirety the singularity exploded with the force of a five hundred megaton bomb, thoroughly atomizing it's target.

Cheers swept across the bridge at the sight, an extremely dangerous hostile warship destroyed. "Good work! Let's mop up the rest of them!" Sparatus growled and the _Archer_ swung around, the gees pulling at him slightly as the destroyer altered course, coming to bear on the three of the four remaining hostile ships which were getting pounded mercilessly with mass accelerator fire and torpedoes from nearly the entirety of the remaining ships and fighters in the fleet and sending back with interest.

Suddenly one of the smaller ships had it's kinetic barriers fail and almost immediately the ship cored through by at least a dozen rounds. The ship heaved violently as a sizeable portion of its mass was ripped away by penetrations, explosive decompressions rippled through the hull faster then bulkheads or Mass Effect fields could stop them. Escape pods boiled off the ship's flanks, while the hull violently broke apart, the final climatic stroke involving what remained of the stern vanishing as the magnetic bottle on her reactor blew.

The two remaining ships did something interesting, together they swung towards the _Thresher Maw_ and charged, rapidly accelerating to a speed that was beyond your normal combat speed, they were going to try and ram the Super-Dreadnought. "Guns kill those ships! Fire everything!" Sparatus snarled and the deck rattled as the _Archer_ fired everything at her disposal. Hypervelocity slugs arched through space and torpedoes hurled themselves out of the tubes, streaking towards the hostile ships but the chances that the _Archer_ had at killing those things was nearly non-existent.

The _Thresher Maw_ and her escorts fired a concentrated alpha strike and the last 630-meter long warship simply disintegrated as over-stressed kinetic barriers failed and at least a dozen and half rounds tore through ship and breached her reactor resulting in an eye-searing nova. The remaining ship fired her plasma particle projector and mass accelerators, the one-two-three hammer blows resulted in an ugly gash that went only spirits knew how deep into the ship materializing on the _Thresher Maw_ 's bow. At the sametime, escape pods began boiling off the flanks of that hostile warship.

The super-dread's escorts fired a coordinated alpha strike again and the shields on that warship blew out only for her hard light barrier to appear in front of her bow. One of the light destroyers realizing what that warship was trying to do accelerated and positioned herself between the onrushing hostile and the heavily damaged and slowly maneuvering _Thresher Maw_.

The two ships collided in a blinding flash of light… and then to Sparatus's horror, the hostile warship staggered seemingly drunkenly out of the fireball, her forward most three hundred fifty meters unrecognizable. Simply a shattered mess of twisted armor and hull-plating, not to mention it was about seventy meters shorter as well. Anyone who was still onboard was no doubt dead from such a hit and thus it was the ship's own momentum that kept it carrying onward and on it's course.

The _Thresher Maw_ fired her portside spinal mass accelerator and the round plunged deep into the warship and right out the stern. It heaved violently under the force of the impact, the hull visibly flexing under immense strain, trying to stay together, hundreds of tons of debris trailing behind it as it hurtled on. Sparatus had to admit, he was impressed, not many races that he knew of could build a ship to be so strong. But he glowered as the slugs from the _Archer_ hit home and failed to do any meaningful damage.

In desperation to avoid the ram, the _Thresher Maw_ veered hard to starboard. But that hit must have crippled her maneuvering for she moved sluggishly, too sluggishly. The destroyers fired another salvo and multiple rounds cored through armor and hull plating, carrying easily dozens of tons of debris out with them on the other side. The ship heaved violently and internal explosions tore through the ship's mangled hull, then the mangled remains of the hostile slammed into the _Thresher Maw_ and both ships vanished in a blinding white flash.

It took Sparatus several seconds to shake himself out of the shock what had just occurred. Never in his life had he ever seen a battle end like that, a foe that was entirely willing to ram the enemy wasn't new it was an old spacer trick after all, you got a bow and engines, well not much could survive a high-speed ramming. But using it to perform one hell of a decapitation strike, to kill not only the CO of the fleet but also his entire personnel staff and the fleet's XO, which meant that command would now fall to one of the Dreadnoughts as the fleet's flagship.

Not that there was much of a fleet left to command. Besides the _Thresher Maw_ , twelve battleships, all twenty of the fleet's heavy cruisers, twenty-two light cruisers, twenty-five heavy destroyers, thirty-six light destroyers, all twenty-four of the fleet's heavy frigates, and thirty-nine frigates all lay scattered throughout the battlefield. It had cost the fleet an astounding one-hundred seventy nine warships and an insane number of Turian lives just to kill six warships, no Turian fleet had suffered such horrific losses since the Krogan Rebellions.

"Status on the last enemy warship?" Sparatus asked as the fleet formed up and began to advance on the last active hostile.

"Heavily damaged, but just by looking at scans, her spinal armament a plasma particle projector is hot. Which means she gut us from stem to stern with one shot, our best bet is staying mobile and at range." a sensor officer said with tripediation.

Sparatus swore, he was confident that they could take this last warship out but not before it gutted at least one warship with it's plasma particle projector and tore at least two to shreds with it's missiles and secondary weapons.

"Slipspace rupture detected!" A tech shouted and Sparatus blinked, he had heard of slipspace. It was a form of FTL that didn't require element zero and thus wasn't dependent on the Mass Relays plus the way it worked was drastically different from ezero requiring specially trained techs to make it work smoothly as a result it was hideously expensive to the point that only top of the line science and research ships, military vessels, and pleasure ships owned by people with more money than they knew what to do with had them.

The enemy vessel slid into the portal and disappeared, the swirling portal into the alternate dimension promptly snapped shut.

"Receiving orders from the _Light of Palevan_. We're to commence search and rescue operations." A comms tech said.

"Great, we're all probably going to need quite a bit of coffee before today is out. That or something stiffer afterward." Sparatus muttered under his breath before giving out orders. "Right, standby to receive casualties. Helmsman, take us to the closest closest group of lifepods." he said while on the tactical map, the assault ships began disgorging landing ships which arched towards the planet and began to enter the atmosphere while one of the fleet's few remaining cruisers, the _Twilight Fury_ , assumed overwatch in suborbit and commenced precision orbital bombardment against any military installation that it found.

Suddenly streaking up from the planet came eight glowing white streaks, surface-to-orbit gun battery fire. The _Twilight Fury's_ engines flared but going from precision station-keeping to executing evasive maneuvers wasn't easy for something as large as a cruiser to do. The first six rounds shattered against the ship's kinetic barriers, the seventh caused it to fail completely, part of the round burying itself partly into the ship judging by how it shuddered under the force of the blow, and the eighth round snapped the cruiser right in half as it's midsection seemingly rippled like water as the shell traversed it's width, the whole ship heaved violent and explosive decompressions tore through the ship, secondary explosions resulting from secondary hyper-velocity impacts also convulsed the ship. It was too much for the ship to handle and with a brief acetic flash of light and radiation, the ship's secondary plasma screw pinch fusion reactors blew.

 _Spirits, well that complicates matters significantly, I don't envy the ground-pounders; but until those surface-to-orbit guns are neutralized, naval gunfire support is out of the question considering that eight of them managed to decimate a cruiser and that for tactical orbital bombardment to be at its most effective we need to be in suborbit or at the very least low-orbit and those guns make that impossible._ Sparatus thought bitterly as the number of Turian ships went up from one-hundred seventy nine to one hundred eighty.

Still he couldn't help but think back to the losses that had been incurred against the enemy. One hundred seventy nine warships for only six of there's did not bode well in the slightest. To make matters worse, these had only been cruisers and yet the monstrous amount of firepower, combined with their relatively tough shielding, and armor that was good enough to stop to a degree at least cruiser and destroyer grade secondaries guns. It made him wonder what they would actually consider dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts, what he pictured was not good in the slightest. Which meant the more that they could salvage from these destroyed hostile warships and learn as much as they can from the survivors, although Sparatus wasn't expecting much.

That said, this battle had gleaned quite a bit of information about their enemy. Their warships were built for close-ranged brawls but they had the capability to fight at long range as well. Throw in those omni-directional "hard light" shields as well as their heavy energy shields and it made for a potent combination. They weren't the fastest ships either, but they were built to take a pounding and send it back with interest. Their ships however weren't designed to take hit, the vast majority of their protection was provided by kinetic barriers, with protection against lasers provided by ablative armor. They needed better armor and fast if they were going to have a mere chance at winning a war against them.

* * *

 **Codex Entry - Turian Expeditionary Fleet:** _The last type of fleet utilized by the Turians is the Expeditionary Fleet, these fleets are designed to wipe out light to moderate orbital defenses and then land ground troops, usually anywhere from one to five legions of ground forces. Each one of these fleets has two dreadnoughts with a super-dread serving as the fleet's flag plus fifteen Battleships in three five ship divisions, the main offensive line is composed of sixty Cruisers in six divisions of ten ships apiece with two divisions of Heavy Cruisers, nine destroyer divisions of seven ships apiece for a total of sixty-three destroyers in divisions plus an additional nine destroyers heading up the frigate wolf packs with three divisions composed of Heavy Destroyers, finally for the last of the combat ships is some seventy-two frigates in wolf packs of eight for a total of nine wolf packs with three wolf packs of Heavy Frigates. Finally topping it off is the assault ships each carrying the Legions in question, the ships are roughly the size of a Dreadnought and carry minimum armaments and instead of element zero utilize fusion reactors, repulsor engines, and slipspace drives (the designs used was stolen from Covenant Empire by the STG but they didn't get the software for the slipspace drives, thus they can only manage about twenty light-years per day which is about as fast as the Mass Effect ships in use currently) but each one can carry all of the men and equipment for five Cohorts which is roughly equal to a Battalion in size, with ten such Cohorts forming a Legion plus the logistics aspects. Thus each Expeditionary Fleet has anywhere between three to fifteen Assault Ships._

* * *

 **AN: Alright, there we go folks. Please share and review, as well as give your thoughts on the battle.**


	4. Fury

**AN: The tricky part to writing any good Fusion Fic is knowing when to buff something and when not to buff something. Thus, I am going with my own personal headcanon for both-sides. Which is something that should've been mentioned earlier. God-fucking-damnit I** _ **knew**_ **there was something I hadn't mentioned.**

 **Actually, now that I think about it; I should mention it right now. I don't consider Halo 5: Guardians to be canon, that was such a massive ass-pull it just doesn't fit.**

 **Banana: First, the Turians do have aerospace fighters. They appear in Mass Effect Three, during Priority: Tuchanka and during the opening cutscene of Priority: Palaven in the same game, they are roughly dagger shaped and are armed with two mass accelerator cannons. The Turians don't have any purpose built carriers, not yet at least in story but the typical Turian Heavy Frigate carries two fighters, Light Destroyers have four fighters, Heavy Destroyers have six fighters, Light Cruisers have eight fighters, Heavy Cruisers have ten fighters, battleships and dreadnoughts have fourteen, and Super-Dreadnoughts have eighteen. As for the energy projector, you bring up a valid point that the UNSC would be using only that however the energy projector has a limited range, mainly in the fact of how far the magnetic fields can be projected in order to keep the beam of plasma needle thin, but MAC guns have versatility, specialized sensor packages, guided kinetic kill vehicles, etc. can be fired by MAC guns. As for the ME warship canon yields, I do find the whole technology stagnant thing to be a little bullshitty mainly because it's always on the march. Plus ezero has it's uses, put an ezero core in one and their is just about nothing a 'Hog could conquer in terms of terrain except the obvious like molten sulfur or deep water and a Pelican would be able to lift an MBT and not suffer a major loss in performance and it would also make getting into orbit less brutal on the engines.**

 **Actually, that reminds me. I am going to be making some slight changes to Citadel-grade Mass Effect Ground Weapons. They still use the ammunition shaving system and the built-in cooling system at least early on in-story. The thermal clip is going to be developed earlier than in canon to help counter the durability of UNSCDF energy shielding and infantry-grade armor. The shots however instead of being pellets of relatively small size fired at high velocity, is going to be changed to a more aerodynamic shape allowing for more range and better penetrating power but are for the most part going to be rather small and lightweight projectiles. The exceptions to this rule are Designated Marksman Rifles and Sniper Rifles.**

 **Note only Colonial Defense Forces and some of the SWAT guys will be using Mass Effect Weapons on the UNSC side of the things. But UNSC ME Weapons fire larger rounds than their Turian counterparts, this means they hit harder but can't fire as many rounds before they overheat.**

 **Also, Bioware and 343i please keep the legal attack dogs that are also known as lawyers firmly muzzled and leashed.**

* * *

 **1120 Hours, February 5th, 2625**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi, City of Badate**

 **Following Fireteam Warwolf**

Fred relaxed as he aimed down the street through the scope of Mantis sniper rifle, watching the group of eight invading aliens advance down the street, behind them was what appeared to be a six-wheeled infantry fighting vehicle that was armed with what appeared to be a potent looking autocannon and a coaxial machine gun. The dismounted infantry appeared to be over six feet tall in height, with slender bodies and plantigrade legs, their hands appeared to have talons and an opposable thumb which could pose a problem in CQC, he couldn't tell what their faces looked however thanks to their full face helmet, but from this range he could tell what they were armed with. Five appeared to be armed with assault rifles or carbines, another appeared to have what could be a designated marksman rifle, and two were equipped with what appeared to be SMGs but that told him that they were likely totting heavy weapons but they appeared to be slung but he was betting one had an RPG.

The other squads in his platoon were already engaged, with his ten man squad about to hit the enemy with an ambush, his first shot would be the cue for the rest of the squad to engage. He brought the crosshairs down onto the head of the lead alien, exhaled, and then pulled the trigger. The rifle boomed and bucked back, vomiting a .285-caliber seven-point-five gram conical projectile at a muzzle velocity of twelve kilometers per second, the round covered the kilometer and half shooting distance in thirteen milliseconds and pegged the alien right in the head. The round ripped through it's shielding, helmet, and head in an instant and caused the alien's head and neck to practically explode in a grisly spray of fragmented bone, brain matter, and blue blood. The now headless alien dropped with a muted _thud_ to the pavement.

On that cue, the distinctive firing sound of four M-7s, two M-12s, an M90, and a GAR-2 filled the air as his squad spread out between two buildings opened fire, catching the hostiles in a crossfire. The aliens scattered, dashing for good cover and putting their own suppressive fire down. One of the heavy weapons operators was suddenly catapulted flat onto it's back amid a spray of blue blood. " _Got one!_ " Ivan Didyk, the squad's shotgunner whooped over TEAMCOM.

With a massive shriek, a rocket from an M57 Pilum streaked in and smashed against the kinetic barriers of the IFVs, the fusion based shape charge in the 50mm rocket causing them to flicker and then fail. The turret swung around just as a second rocket raced towards the IFV and this time, the warhead caused the vehicle to erupt into fire and smoke.

Fred lined up another alien and fired, the round cored through kinetic barriers, armor, and flesh with ease and simply pulped the alien's head. Moments later another alien had both of its legs and a good portion of it's torso shredded by an M9 grenade, it collapsed with a howl of pain as the limbs in question broke under a combination of weight and damage. A sustained burst of gunfire riddled it's armor and frantic attempts to staunch the bleeding ceased.

Fred's rifle boomed again and another alien lost its head in an explosion of blood, brain matter, bone, and armor plating. He had just sighted up another alien and was just beginning to pull the trigger when Ash swore loudly, pain evident in his voice over TEAMCOM, it caused Fred to jerk the rifle as he finished pulling the trigger. Thus the round instead of reducing the alien's head and neck to gore, turned its entire upper torso into chum, blood blue splattered everything within three meters.

" _Christ boss, what did that guy ever do to you to deserve that?_ " Iryna Lebid, the SAW gunner asked with amusement in her voice.

"He, she, it didn't do anything to me. Ash, were you hit?" Fred said.

" _Yessir, the armor stopped the rounds, the bastards had their DMR guy and an Assault Rifle guy double team me, DMR shot downed my kinetic barrier Assault Rifle guy put probably a sustained burst of ten rounds in caught me off guard. But I feel like I just got kicked in the chest by a Brute._ " The S-III replied sourly.

" _Grenade out!_ " Mark called and a 40mm Thermobaric grenade sailed into the street and detonated with a chest-pounding _boom_. When the smoke cleared, it was obvious just by looking at the carnage that the other aliens were dead.

" _Heads-up Warwolf Team, hostile air support inbound. ETA ninety seconds._ " A spotter for a sniper team said.

"Affirmative. Warwolf Team, relocate to these coordinates! Double-time _go!_ " Fred barked as he folded his sniper rifle, slung it, and drew his MA6, while at the sametime standing up and sprinting out of the building he had been in. He covered two city blocks worth of distance, some two hundred forty meters in twelve seconds flat before diving into the alley way that he had designated as the squad rally point. Ten seconds after that Ash and Mark showed up, followed fifteen seconds later by the rest of the squad.

He took a moment to tune his ears to the sounds that were around him. The roar of jet engines, the rumble of internal combustion engines, off in the distance the faint whining of a turbine engine, the heavy thunder-claps of alien artillery guns, the muted and barely audible thump of human mortars, the cracks, pops, and fairly louder _brrts_ of human infantry weapons dueling with the subtle _brrts_ of the alien weapons, all of this he took in within seconds.

A new sound, a hurricane howl of engines followed by the distinctive whistle of bombs, the explosions shook the ground and with a violent roar, the sound of collapsing buildings reverberated up and down the street.

" _This is Werewolf Team, we're under heavy fire from multiple enemy eight-man squads with vehicle support! They've nailed three and five with DMR fire and got seven, eight, and ten with autocannon fire!_ " Werewolf actual cried out over the comms, the distinctive sound of several mass effect heavy autocannons as well as a bunch of small arms audible in the background dueling with the distinctive crackle of human small arms.

" _Affirmative_ _Werewolf, this is War Pig, we're enroute ETA twelve mikes!_ " The commander of one of the few M890 Liger MBTs that the Shanxi CDF had reported.

"Werewolf Team, this Warwolf Team. We're enroute, ETA is approximately eleven mikes, provided we don't run into any company!" Fred said before dropping a nav marker on Werewolf's position, just over eleven kilometers away. "Mark, you're on point! Move out!"

"On it!" Mark said and the team moved out, running thanks to their armor as fast as an olympic athlete. During the run, Fred slung his MA6 and unslung his Spartan Laser. It would have more than enough power to annihilate the enemy vehicles that he had seen so far.

Regardless it was rather easy to avoid hostile contact for the first six minutes of their run, then they rounded a corner and ran into a pair of tanks. "Oh crap!" Iryna shouted.

"Scatter!" Fred yelled and in an instant the men of Fireteam Warwolf scattered heading for cover, Fred dove back into the alley from which they had came. "Werewolf Team, be advised. We've been delayed." he said.

" _Goddamnit! What's causing it?_ " Werewolf actual demanded.

As if on the cue, the tanks got over their own shock of having an infantry materialize at suicide range. Their machine guns opened fire, it was different from the soft _brrt-brrt-brrt_ of the alien infantry weapons and instead it was a heavier version of the same sound. "Two tanks," Fred said simply.

" _Fuck, these bastards have tanks?_ " Werewolf actual said.

"Yep, they are hover tanks and that means they likely can't mount as big of a gun that our tanks can, mainly because tracks provide more stability. Thus allowing for more firepower to be carried. Now if you excuse me Werewolf Actual, I have a pair of tanks to kill." Fred said as he shouldered his Spartan Laser.

" _Roger, good luck Spartan!_ " Werewolf actual said and then the comms link went out.

"Ash, how many rockets do you think it will take to kill those tanks?" Fred asked as he set the Spartan Laser to it's Anti-Armor setting and flicked the safety off. Suddenly with a deep resounding _boom_ , one of the tanks fired it's main gun and a the first floor of a nearby three-story building exploded violently. Iryna swore vicisiously, the round had probably landed too close for comfort.

" _Depends on shield strength, but if it scales then we are looking at least two rockets to down the shields, but I am not sure if that the armor will be able stop a Pilum warhead cold and I am not seeing anything that could be an Active Protection System. But it could also be using a first-generation APS as well which would mean good for one rocket, if so then at least four rockets to kill it._ " Ash said bluntly and the other tank fired, annihilating a car. The explosion tossed Ivan back like a toy and his BIOMONITOR began flashing red, indicating a serious, possibly life-threatening injury.

"Damn!" Fred swore as he leaned out and sighted one of the tanks and pulled the trigger. The laser thrummed with power as it cycled up, a small green targeting laser being projected forward. The glow within the maw of the laser weapon becoming ever more noticeable. The tank he was targeting swung it's turret around to face him, just as the Spartan Laser discharged, a blinding emerald green beam leaped forth. It reached the tank in nanoseconds and violently cored through the armor in an instant and into the fighting compartment beyond where the sheer heat of the beam ignited the atmosphere. The whole tank erupted like a fiery volcano, hurling it's turret into the air as if it weighed nothing and was tossed by an angry deity.

" _Nice job!_ " Warwolf five whooped as the other tank swung it's gun around to face him.

Spartan Time took over, in a matter of milliseconds Fred shifted his armor's element zero core to mass-lightning brought the Spartan Laser to a rapid carry position and then he _moved_. He sprang into motion with a speed and grace that shouldn't be physically possible for someone 113-years old. He was already seven meters away from where he had been when the tank fired and the shell annihilated everything within three meters, the shockwave knocked him off his feet but he converted his tumble into a sideways combat roll and came up with little loss of momentum. Shrapnel, bits of ceramic, plastic, and titanium bounced off his armor's kinetic barriers from the explosion of the shell. He shouldered the Spartan Laser, and while he strafed towards the next ally charged the weapon, once again the weapon discharged it's blinding green laser beam which reached out and traversed the 50-meter range in nanoseconds.

The beam bored through the armor with incredible ease, the air inside the tank ignited explosively and the resulting blast blew the tank apart.

Time resumed.

"Clear!" Fred called.

"Clear!" Mark shouted.

"Clear!" Ash said.

"Doc! I need you over here!" Fred called and the squad's lone medic ran over. An M-7 Lancer was attached to her back, as was a Stinger Plasma Pistol on her thigh. Ivan was moaning in pain, according to his armor he had severe internal trauma in his torso as well as shrapnel injuries.

"Goddamn! He's lucky to be alive, won't be able to do much here without a triage station but I should be able to get him back on his feet at least for a short while." Yeva Fomenko exclaimed as she pulled a can of biofoam out of her medical sack and putting it to a port in the armor and pushing it in then squeezing the trigger, filling the man's torso cavity with the space-filling anti-bacterial, coagulant tissue-regenerating polymer.

Ivan gasped, a slightly wet and painful sound. "Come on, up you come." Yeva said and carefully brought Ivan to a sitting position.

" _Warwolf? Have you dealt with those tanks?_ " Werewolf Actual asked.

"We have Werewolf, but we got a man down. Revised ETA is is ten mikes at least." Fred replied.

" _Fuck me._ " Werewolf Actual snarled.

" _Hang on Werewolf Actual! ETA thirty-seconds!_ " War Pig's commander shouted over the comms.

" _Hurry it up!_ " Werewolf Actual barked.

" _We're going as fast as we can!_ " War Pig's commander snapped back.

"Ivan can you walk?" Ash asked.

Ivan coughed. "I think so sir. Maybe even jogging if I push my luck. But no running." he said weakly.

"Right." Fred said before looking at the rest of his team, they nodded in response. Good, they were ready to move. "Werewolf team, we're Oscar Mike!" He said before the team moved out at a jog so that Ivan could keep up.

" _Good to hear,-_ " the rest of the sentence was lost as enormous booming roar drowned out the words as what could only be War Pig's 152mm coilgun firing. " _Nevermind, I think you just figured out that Warpig just arrived. Werewolf actual out!_ "

The men of Warwolf team jogged through the battered streets, sticking close to cover as they did so, making progress towards Werewolf and War Pig's position. Fred had point this time and he had his MA6 out, the powerful weapon would have no trouble slicing through shields, armor, and flesh because it had proven itself capable of doing that during the Human-Covenant war. First against Elites and later against Brutes, both of which had used energy shields and had decent armor.

They got to within two minutes of Werewolf's position, when more trouble appeared as a squad of enemy infantry came around the corner of the avenue that was several blocks away. "Uh-oh!" Iryna said as she gestured as them.

"Ash, Mark. Sniper Rifles out. Coordinated shots on my mark. The rest of you disperse." Fred ordered and the two retired S-IIIs flashed their status lights green as they unslung their sniper rifles. Together they dropped to a prone position and each selected a target.

"Fire" Fred breathed and three sniper rifles voiced their fury as one. Even as the alien squad came to a halt in shock as three of their number dropped headless, the three spartans had selected new targets within a half second. "Fire." Fred said again and once more three rifles boomed and three aliens dropped to the ground.

The remaining two began to spring into motion, making a mad dash for cover. "Ash hold fire. Mark, fire." Fred said and two rifles voiced their fury. The last two alien soldiers hit the ground dead.

Total engagement time, five seconds.

"Clear." Fred called,

"Clear." Ash said.

"Clear." Mark said.

With a few quick hand signals, Warwolf team came out of cover. "We're enroute now Werewolf. ETA three mikes." Fred said and once again the squad moved out.

" _Affirmative, we're holding position. Werewolf Actual out._ "

* * *

 **1225 Hours, February 5th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi, City of Badate**

Gunnery Sergeant Sercus Brudus swore vividly as he fired the Tyrus' heavy autocannon at what could be best described as a Fast Attack Vehicle. It was four-wheeled, fast as hell, and it's tri-barreled rotary machine gun was steadily chipping away at the durable kinetic barriers of the Tyrus with _chemically propelled slugs_ of all things. It was one thing to have the kinetic barriers of a Tyrus worn down by Mass Effect gunfire but to have those kinetic barriers worn away by chemically propelled slugs was another matter entirely!

The thing was probably fairly fragile but the biggest problem he had was simply _hitting_ the spirits-damned thing! "Hold spirits-damned still!" Sercus growled angrily as he fired another burst from the auto cannon, which once again missed as the FAV swerved to the left effortlessly evading the burst. It seemed that every wild maneuver that the thing pulled, some of which were pretty risky would put the thing just out of reach of each salvo.

" _Hurry up in killing that thing! Shields are almost gone!_ " The vehicle's commander snarled.

"I am _trying_! But you try hitting a target moving at high-speed while your moving at high-speed and under fire! It's not easy and it's not helping that this guy isn't maintaining a constant course!" Sercus snapped as he fired again and the burst of high-explosive shells that just barely missed the enemy vehicle.

The Tyrus suddenly slewed to the right and then with a rumble fired it's thrusters and leaped over a ditch. The enemy vehicle followed them without absolutely no fear, it's machine gun blazing all the while. However the vehicle didn't have antiproton thrusters like most military vehicles did that were connected to an onboard Element Zero core and thus when it jumped the ditch, it managed to somehow make the jump and landed heavily on it's suspension going partially airborne again before landing hard and promptly started chasing them again, it's gun still blazing. That said, the experience probably hadn't been too pleasant for occupants, that impact alone had been enough to make him wince.

"Ah screw it!" Sercus snarled as an audible alarm began to warble indicating that the kinetic barriers were getting dangerously depleted. He switched from the autocannon to the coaxial machine gun, deciding that trading damage for rate of fire would be able to put down the FAV. He tried his best to line up the FAV and depressed the firing stud.

The machine gun roared to life, a stream of tracers reached out towards the hostile vehicle which promptly swung to left to evade the gunfire and slammed into a burning aircar that was on it's side and blasted through the obstacle like it wasn't their at the cost of shattering the windshield and headlights, as well as ripping off the winch but despite that the vehicle was undeterred in it's pursuit of the Tyrus.

Suddenly the Tyrus lurched forward and skidded as the driver hit the brakes. The hostile overshot the IFV and as the enemy vehicle was swinging around to try and get close enough so that it could hit the IFV with impunity.

Sercus wasn't going to let that to happen and opened fire with the autocannon. The enemy vehicle (which was about as fast and agile as a Varren, metaphorically speaking) quickly slewed to left and then right, evading the cannon fire. But not entirely, this time around as a couple of rounds connected and mulched the passenger in an explosion of blood, powderized bone, armor, and whatever the chair was made of, thoroughly splattering the driver with gore.

" _Gunner! Why isn't that thing dead yet?!_ " The Commander shouted as the Tyrus lurched into motion again and turned away from the hostile vehicle as the kinetic barriers failed and rounds started drumming against the armor, which Sercus had decided was exactly like a Varren in most ways, being fast, agile, and packing quite a bite.

"Well the driver of that thing is evading like crazy and it's moving at a speed that's at least one-hundred twenty-five kilometers per hour but probably more. It's not as easy as you think it would be, sir!" Sercus barked back as the mechanical Varren gave chase. It's machine gun blazing all the while resulting in a pounding like hailstones against the rear of the vehicle.

" _Armor can't take much more of that sort of pounding! Spirits, it's like that gun is shooting is some sort of armor-piercing high-explosive round! It would have no problem shredding a Jiris and once the armor fails it'll get ugly fast!_ " The Tyrus's engineer said as the driver of the big six-wheeled IFV suddenly took a 'short-cut' to get to the next avenue.

Problem was that said 'shortcut' was through a Spirits-damned _building_.

Sercus, the Engineer, and the commander of the big IFV all swore like sailors as the driver guided the IFV through first a steel reinforced concrete wall and then several interior walls with the fast attack vehicle nipping at their heels. Plaster, wood, furniture, decor was all sent flying by the passage of the Tyrus.

The Tyrus burst out of building amid a shower of concrete and glass, barreling into the avenue at full speed, it promptly swerved to the left and made a mad dash for Turian lines. Out of the dust cloud behind them came the fast attack vehicle, wasting no time Sercus fired a burst from the autocannon and let his mandibles flare out in a grin as the five round burst tore into the back of the vehicle and ignited the fuel and probably the ammunition, blowing the back end of the vehicle apart in a brilliant fireball.

"Target destroyed!" Sercus whooped eagerly.

" _Spirits, finally. Our armor couldn't take much more of that._ " The vehicle commander said as the Tyrus bounded back towards friendly territory.

They proceeded in silence for maybe a minute when more trouble rounded a corner ahead of them, this time it was something far more lethal than a mechanical Varren. This time it was a tracked monster of a tank, it swung it's turret towards them and the Sercus was taken aback at just how huge the main gun was, it's caliber was much larger than the main gun on the Hellion MBT, it was as if he was staring down the maw of some great predator.

" _Sercus shoot that bastard!_ " The commander roared in surprise and shock as the Tyrus came to a jerking stop and then went into reverse, trying to get away from the massive monster.

Sercus wasted no time, he opened fire and the autocannon came to life. Blue streaks lanced out of the barrel and to his shock there was no flash of kinetic barriers, but visible sparks flew off the turret and hull as the rounds impacted and failed to penetrate it's armor. The muzzle of the tank's main gun began to glow an angry red, the glow was rapidly intensifying as well at an exponential rate, whatever it was it wasn't good.

" _EVERYBODY OUT!_ " The commander roared, apparently realizing that the Tyrus was done for. That was all that Sercus needed to hear, because he threw open the hatch above him, grabbed his Maelstrom Submachine Gun and four grenades then climbed out of the turret and leaped from the IFV.

If it hadn't been for his armor, he likely would've broken something, as it were he converted his fall into a forward combat roll and came up running, he _bolted_ for a nearby building. Most of its windows had been blown out but it looked solid enough to take a direct hit from a tank cannon. He threw a glance over his shoulder and caught a glimpse of the vehicle's commander, driver, and engineer bailing out. The driver had just gotten clear when suddenly there was an ear-splitting roar and a bolt of red fire slammed into the Tyrus. It's heat was so great that the three remaining crew members spontaneously combusted, bursting into flames like torches while the Tyrus had it's armor layers vaporize around the point of impact as the shot effortlessly punctured the armor and then Tyrus detonated amidst a red flash vaporising most of the vehicle and throwing fragments in all directions most no bigger than a stored Maelstrom SMG. The shockwave tossed Sercus to the ground, he quickly scrambled to his feet and ran into the building.

The room he entered was a lobby of somesort. Thinking quickly he dove behind the desk and pulled out one of his grenades ready to prime it and throw it. The writing instruments on the desk rattled, he peeked over the edge and spotted the tank lumbering past with a group of infantry accompanying it. Here he was finally able to get a good look at their armor and the beings they were fighting, they were bipedal with plantigrade legs, with what appeared to be four fingered hands with an opposable thumb, they stood shorter than Turians for the most part.

His hand clenched around the grenade, it's one-hundred seventy grams of X4 would be more than enough to annihilate the six or so troops that he could see, of that he was nearly certain as it was an HE grenade.

But it would also draw the ire of the tank and whatever infantry was bound to be on the other side of the tank. Which would either result in the first floor of the building getting blown up or the infantry being sent in after him. Neither of which would be good for him, he was a soldier not a warrior he picked his fights wisely and didn't engage every enemy he saw.

Thus he waited until the enemy was out of sight and out of range of his motion tracker. Before he stood took a deep breath, readied his SMG and moved out. He could tell that they were winning, if the radio traffic he had heard was anything to go off of. Resistance while scattered was proving to be horrifically effective however, with the Jirises and infantry taking the brunt of the losses, which wasn't surprising considering the former's relatively light armor and kinetic barriers and infantry because well it wasn't surprising considering some of the vehicles they had encountered.

He poked his head out of the building and quickly looked in both directions, seeing no one he then left the building and started heading back toward friendly lines. His careful motions were designed to not attract attention, which was the last thing that he wanted.

After several minutes according to the mission clock, he rounded a corner and grimaced at what he saw. Four of the human tracked monsters that were their tanks lay broken, but these were of a different model, their broad, low to the ground hulls each had four pods with tracks, while the massive turret sported a monstrous main cannon. Their insanely thick looking armor had been cracked open and some had flames licking out of the wounds in their armor.

Yet he expected to see a several burning Turian tanks, but he only saw the shattered remains of a couple of Jirises and a Tyrus but no Hellions. Which was a good sign that they weren't totally outclassed, then again IFV versus tank usually ended with the IFV in about a billion pieces.

Off in the distance some sort of music began, he couldn't really make out anything unique though. He shrugged it off and continued moving, but the back of his mind began monitor it just in case it was an enemy vehicle that was blasting that music and it decided to head in his direction.

He rounded another corner and had walked halfway down the block when he spotted six of the hostile aliens, humans he corrected himself, but unlike the others who had been in the mechanical Varren and accompanying the tank, they didn't have the same color scheme as those soldiers had a mottled camouflage pattern composed of at least five colors, these troopers however had a dark blue and white camouflage; one of them held a shield of some sort that had POLICE emblazoned across it. That struck him as odd, why were security forces fighting against military forces?

Then he caught sight of their weapons, a mix of assault rifles, submachine guns, although the one with the shield had one hell of a hefty looking pistol. He decided that it would probably be best to double back and look for another route, mainly because he was on the wrong end of six-to-one odds.

Naturally however, it seemed that some deity he wasn't sure which, had it in for him today. Because it was at that moment when someone spotted him and immediately shouted something which his Omni-tool automatically translated "There's one! Let'em have it!".

 _Ah crap._ Sercus thought as he dove behind cover as they opened fire. The distinctive sounds of gauss and chemical propellants filled the air. He poked out of cover, revealing as little as he could he brought to his SMG to bear and opened fire. The subtle _brrt_ and lightweight kick of his Maelstrom was comforting, seeing blazing yellow tracers streaking towards him along with the noise of those rifles however was new to him.

He noted however that while they were good with cover, they were having trouble hitting him, probably because they were either tired or didn't want to give up their cover to get closer. But it was most likely because he was providing a relatively small target. Then suddenly the one with the shield popped out of cover and fired, it's hand cannon going off like an artillery gun, the round caught him square in the face and if it hadn't been for his kinetic barriers would've rearranged it. As it where the kinetic force of the round as well as the thing _exploding_ knocked him flat on his back dazed and confused.

Realizing how lucky he had just gotten he scrambled to his feet and sighted up a hostile and fired a long sustained burst. The Maelstrom may fire an absolutely tiny round, but it's ability to fire fifteen rounds per second at full automatic with the capability of firing one hundred twenty rounds before overheating was incredibly useful. The humans scattered but the one he was firing on had his kinetic barriers fail after three seconds of firing and it only took a half second of fire to render his target a bloody heap on the ground.

Alright, now he was getting somewhere. He pulled out a grenade, thumbed the arming switch and threw it. The explosive device flew in prefect arc and detonated in a ball of fire and thunder right next to a hostile's position and tossed him aside like a ragged doll and judging from high-pitched scream, shrapnel had wounded a third. "That's three." he muttered.

He caught a glimpse of motion and saw that the woman with the riot shield was charging him, pistol blazing. He spun and opened fire with the Maelstrom and swore vividly when the rounds failed to penetrate his riot shield, despite the fact that he had an AP mod installed. After two rounds had impacted against his kinetic barriers however, along with the other rounds beginning to get far too close for comfort with some starting to hit his weakened his shields. He pulled out his second grenade and threw it at the shield bearer who wisely dove away from the device, but Turian Grenades could be set to have an impact fuse, time-delayed, or remote detonation fuse.

He triggered the grenade's fuse and it promptly detonated with the fury of the Hierarchy behind it. Thus tossing the shield bearer two meters where upon the human landed heavily and tumbled before coming to a stop.

 _That's four._ He thought as he opened fire with his SMG at the fifth human who was behind good cover and returning fire with his rifle. The other one was firing his own SMG at him albeit not very accurately, the poor kid was probably scared out of his mind. The one with the rifle however was probably used to having missions go sideways for he was constantly tagging him with that rifle. Not enough to threaten dropping his kinetic barriers, but enough to make him keep an eye on it.

The two aliens exchanged looks and then they both pulled out a cylindrical object and then tossed them expertly. _Grenades!_ He thought in an instant. But they weren't shaped like grenades as he knew them, regardless they were likely explosive devices. Thus he fell back on his training and dove to the deck.

A moment later both devices clattered to the ground and then instead of exploding and throwing shrapnel everywhere and producing a lethal shockwave. Instead they went off with a pair of blinding flashes and an absolutely deafening _bang_. For several long moments all he could see was just white and then slowly his vision started to return he groaned weakly. That had been a new experience for him, because usually when a grenade detonated it left the poor bastard on the receiving end in a bloody twisted mess.

 _I've never heard of a non-lethal grenade before. Spirits my head hurts, hardsuit has hearing protection they said, well if they do then why are my ears ringing?_ Sercus thought sourly as he tried to regain his bearings. That's when he realized that he wasn't dead, those grenades had effectively rendered him helpless and entirely at the mercy at those officers. Yet he wasn't staring down the barrel of a rifle, which was something he actually expected to find.

He shakily stood up and looked around, the policemen were gone. Clever trick he noted, out-matched by an enemy, flash-bang the bastard and then bugout to a better location. Nice usage of being able to make a tactical retreat without risk of losing men in the process. It would make life hell for any advance, what with soldiers getting temporarily blinded and stunned constantly or at least semi-regularly during an advance, it would throw unit cohesion out the window or at the very least disrupt it heavily.

Still he had to get back to the Turian lines. Which meant more walking, thus he resumed heading back to friendly lines. Of course that's when he noted that the music was getting progressively louder and louder. It sounded really funky, with string instruments. He looked around trying to wager where the noise was coming from but the sounds of combat that surrounded him wasn't helping matters at all.

"Spirits dammit, what the _hell_ is that music?" Sercus muttered as he tried to find the source of it.

"Sonofabitch! Drive Grif! Fucking _drive_!" A human screamed as the source of the music, another of those mechanical Varren came barrelling around the corner, maneuvering wildly it's engine roaring like an enraged Thresher Maw. It's gun, sounding all the world like a buzzsaw and was ejecting spent shell casings at a furious rate, with the end of the weapon emitting a tongue of flame nearly as long as his arm. "I am going as fast as I can Simmons!" another human shouted in reply as the vehicle went barreling by at full tilt, nearly running him over.

Hot on the heels of the vehicle came it's pursuer, a Jiris IFV, it's kinetic barriers sparkling as it stopped the rounds that were connecting. Despite obviously being too close to fire its missiles, the pintle mounted machine gun was blazing away at the machine for all it's worth. He sighed, that had been interesting. He continued walking towards friendly lines which seemed to be closer than he last remembered. He rounded a corner.

Then a moment later something smashed into his kinetic barriers and knocked him flat on his ass and in the distance was a loud boom. _Sniper! I need to get out of the street!_ Sercus realized as he scrambled to his feet and once again bolted for a building. A second shot boomed and his right thigh went numb as the round muscled past his kinetic barriers and punched through his armor like it wasn't their, he managed to make the last few steps into a building before collapsing with a shout of pain.

Then he glanced at his wound and grimaced, the leg was a bloody mess, the round had ripped through his armor like paper and had made a mess of his thigh. He searched through the various pouches in his armor, finding extra ammunition blocks for his Maelstrom, a utility knife, a couple of a food rations, finally he found what he was looking for. His personal trauma kit which was for when he got hit.

He opened the kit, wrapped his thigh with a tourniquet, cleaned out the wound, applied a disinfectant, followed by a quick-clotting bandage. It would keep him alive for awhile but he needed proper medical care.

He stood up shakily and began to head deeper into the building with a pronounced limp. He noticed along a back wall was a directory to various rooms. That's when the sensitive audio receptors in his hardsuit began to pick up something, a phrase that shook him to his very core for the speaker's voice was filled with hate and anger, yet it was also muted as if the speaker was behind several walls.

" _Your destruction is the will of gods and we are their instrument._ "

"What in the name of the Spirits was _that_?" Sercus muttered to himself, thinking that the blood loss and likely minor shock was making him hear things. That notion was dispelled when he heard a new voice speaking. This one wasn't filled with anger or hate, in fact it actually sounded like the sort of voice one would use for a documentary.

His heart skipped several beats and he nearly dropped his SMG when he heard was the narrator had to say next. " _That sentence delivered by the Covenant Empire's High Prophet of Truth, heralded the beginning of the most destructive war in the entirety of humanity's history as well as the beginning of it's first campaign on the Outer Colony world of Harvest. But while that sentence was delivered on October 7th, 2525 to Battlegroup Four, the first skirmish of the war occurred on February 3rd with the first real major battle occurring on February 5th. These small battles were the beginnings of a twenty-seven year war where nothing short of humanity's very existence was at stake._ "

It was at that moment he realized that the Hierarchy had probably just poked a sleeping Krogan with a large, sharp, and hot stick right in the quad. This was likely not going to end well, because poking a sleeping Krogan with a large, sharp, and hot stick in the quad resulted in a very pissed off Krogan that would absolutely destroy whoever was responsible. Thus he had to find the source of that documentary and alert General Octamus to this development.

After quickly searching the first floor and finding nothing, he frowned. That's when he remembered spotting what had appeared to be an elevator. He carefully crept to where it was, being mindful of his leg. He reached the elevator thumbed the button and the doors slid open with a pleasant _ding_. He stepped inside and noted that there was only one other floor. He pressed the button and with another _ding_ the elevator's doors slid shut and with a slight jolt the elevator started ascending.

It reached the second floor and the doors once again opened with a _ding_ , he stepped out into the hallway. Listening carefully he heard the same voice from before speaking.

" _-Harvest, we'll be taking a look at the space battles that raged around the planet during the Harvest Campaign which officially started in 2526 and lasted till 2531. The first space battle that occurred between the Covenant Empire and humanity happened on October 7th 2525._ " the documentary narrator said.

It was certainly louder on this floor and seemed to be coming from his right. He carefully limped through the hallway his SMG at the ready. The droning of the narrator getting constantly louder. Finally three doors down from the end he found the source of the sound and grasped the handle, then pushed the door open. The place was empty and he quickly swept the place finding no one.

He returned to the living room and keyed his comm. "This is Corporal Sercus of the 38th Mechanized Infantry Legion, 7th Cohort. I've made a disturbing discovery, these humans have apparently fought the _Covenant Empire_." he said.

"Repeat transmission Corporal? Did you just say that the humans have fought the _Covenant_?" The calm Turian voice back at the command center that had been set up at the Starport where they had landed asked in shock.

"Considering I am staring at a damn documentary that's explaining the space battles that happened around a planet called Harvest. I am _oh spirits_." Sercus began before dropping his voice to a mere whisper as the screen displayed what happened next.

Three human ships were suddenly beset upon by something out of everyone's nightmares. A warship that was composed of seven bulbous sections that was easily five kilometers long came arching over the pole of the world of Harvest it's surface reduced to glass.

That same voice filled with malice and anger spoke that cruel sentence " _Your destruction is the will of the gods and we are their instrument._ " then it opened fire, blue cyan streaks knifed across space and speared the hull-plating of a small tuning fork shaped ship, which promptly vaporized under the onslaught resulting in a plume of ignited atmosphere roaring out of a hull breach. Right behind the laser salvo came a bolt of red hell fire, the targeted warship unleashed it's CIWS defenses which did absolutely nothing in stopping it. It speared the ship and punched past armor like it was paper and transferred it's incredible amount of kinetic and thermal energy to the ship. The exterior of the ship ballooned outward as massive explosions chained across its length and then with a blinding ancetic flash the ship vanished.

" _CMA_ Vostok _down, no escape pods! She went down with all hands!_ " someone shouted.

" _Give it back to them!_ **FIRE!** " Another voice, strong and commanding, roared and both ships fired a monstrous salvo of missiles, easily over one hundred warheads were launched from each ship which arched through the void and each ship fired their spinal mounts as well as their secondary gun battery turrets, over a dozen slugs 'howled' across space towards their target.

Instantly the Covenant warship opened fire with it's lasers in a rapid-tracking mode and instantly missiles began dying. The shells connected and the shields flared as it stopped every single shot effortlessly and then seconds later the surviving fifty missiles or so slammed into the enemy ship and exploded in blinding spheres of energy. When the light cleared, the hostile was completely unharmed which resulted in Sercus's mandibles flaring in shock and fear.

" _How did it survive_ that _?! There was enough firepower in that salvo to completely annihilate the_ entire _eastern seaboard of the URNA!_ " Someone shouted.

" _Picking up beta particle spikes!_ " Another voice shouted.

" _Retreat! Get us out of here!_ " The thundering commanding tone from before bellowed, realizing as had Sercus that in the face of a monster with shielding that tough and weapons that strong it would be best to retreat.

The two remaining ships, one a brick and the other a tuning fork design like the first ship had their engines flare as they went to flee. Suddenly bolts of purple fire knifed towards them. The brick shaped ship, which the documentary had mentioned was named _Heracles_ fired her thrusters and got out of the way of the worst of the salvo, but three energy bolts connected and the ship burned as armor vaporized providing barely any protection at all allowing them to punch deep into the ship, explosive decompressions and explosions ripped through the ship's hull, flames erupting out of airlocks for the briefest of instants and the whole ship shuddered visibly under the hammer blows.

The other ship, the _Arabia_ according to the documentary, managed to completely dodge the salvo of energy bolts directed at it and fired another salvo from it's secondary guns, the shells hadn't even gotten halfway there when a blinding beam of energy speared the ship in the stern and the ship dissolved in an eye-searing flash of light and radiation as the reactor blew.

" _Initiate slipspace jump_ " The Captain of the _Heracles_ roared as a salvo of lasers sliced into the ship, the laser bolts impacting armor and the holes from the previous weapon impacts, searing through bulkheads with ease. The ship's bow flashed with light and a purple-green bruise materialized on the inky back drop of space and the ship shot into it.

"Corporal? You there?" The operator asked.

"Yes, I am. I am certain that the humans have fought the Covenant before, in a genocidal war for survival and I just saw the first battle. If it was displayed in real time, then it only lasted fourteen seconds from beginning to end." Sercus said in shock and horror, he had never seen a battle be so lopsided in his entire life.

"Affirmative Sercus. Hold position, reinforcements will arrive at your position shortly. In the meantime this comes from General Kuril himself, record that documentary. We might be able to glean quite a bit about our enemy's past."

* * *

 **1325 Hours, February 5th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi**

 **Altitude 800 meters above the city of Badate**

The F-300 Kite UCAV swept relatively low over the battlefield. It's array of sensors quickly picking out both friendly and enemy units. The CDF and police forces had been nearly pushed completely out of the city, worse they were in danger of being encircled. Numerous vehicles lay destroyed from both sides in the streets and vehicular and infantry combat raged.

At that moment, the drone's RWR went off as from below two MANPADs fired upon the drone after achieving lock. Each one discharging a single missile, the onboard Combat Intelligence instantly turned into the missiles, engaged it's ECM system, and launched countermeasures while selecting the proper munition for a counter attack as it marked the position the MANPAD attack came from. One missile had it's guidance system crash due to the jamming and it promptly went into a moonshot and the other missile was decoyed by the countermeasures.

The Kite swung around and locked onto the building where the two MANPADs had been fired from and retaliated with a missile of its own. From a weapon bay, a single ANVIL-X Micro Missile launched, it streaked through the air leaving no contrail behind it allowing the drone to break off but it kept the building in it's sight. The munition impacted the targeted structure and the three-story tall building was reduced to rubble and vapor when the thirty kilogram plasma warhead exploded in a blinding gold-white flash.

The threat neutralized, the UCAV went back to its previous mission. Locating and marking active enemy tanks, decently sized infantry positions, artillery, and IFVs. Suddenly it's RWR alerted the CI again and the drone turned hard to the right as a pair of fighters came at it from out of the sun, their mass accelerator cannons blazing.

The sudden maneuver caused one enemy fighter to overshoot, but the other one managed to stay hot on the heels of the UCAV. It's guns blazing, the drone began jinking left and right trying frantically to stay out of the gun arcs of the hostile fighter. Then the tables turned when the drone suddenly did a kulbit maneuver and the enemy overshot and suddenly had its own RWR blaring as the drone lined up and locked on.

It immediately opened fire with it's twin plasma rail guns, firing bolts of energy lethal energy at twelve rounds per second, all it took was a single three second burst to strip the fighter of its kinetic barriers and then completely slag the fighter which blew apart in a terrific explosion.

The drone's RWR went off again as it's radar detected two more missile launches. It promptly turned into the warheads, deploying flares and chaff in an attempt to decoy the warheads. But unlike the MANPADs earlier, these missiles weren't as easily fooled. The drone hit the afterburner and then went damn near vertical, going from roughly 1,200 meters to 7,000 meters in a matter of seconds. The Drone rolled over the top and then dove, deploying flares and chaff. One missile took the bait but the other kept coming, easily keeping pace with the UCAV.

The UCAV tried to turn into the missile, but it had gotten so close then no maneuver would successfully decoy it. The warhead slammed into its energy shields and sent the Kite tumbling when it detonated, severely draining the shields. The CI immediately used it's aerolions and elevators, managing to recover rather close to the ground.

The hostile fighter was upon it just as the shields began regenerating. The UCAV tried to evade, but two thirty-seven millimeter mass accelerator cannons each with a rate of fire of twelve hundred rounds per minute made it a moot point. The shields were dropped completely in less than two seconds and a half second later the entire left wing was ripped away sending the drone tumbling from the sky trailing fire and smoke.

The onboard Combat Intelligence tried to recover but to no avail. The last thing the camera recorded before the feed cut was the wall of a building.

"Fuck me." A technician said as the feed cutout. "We lost the video feed sir." he said.

"Goddamnit, did we get the targeting data?" Major General Franklin Williams growled, his first instinct told him to commit everything he had to relieve Badate. But that city was a good five hundred kilometers away and he had wanted to consolidate his forces before moving to Badate to build a defense their. But the aliens had arrived sooner than he had anticipated and were now striking Badate with everything they had.

Worse the CDF was at risk of being wiped out or at the very least captured and he didn't have enough Pelican Dropships to get his entire force which was one Armored Division and two Motorized Infantry Divisions to Badate in a decent amount of time. Such was the drawbacks of only having two Heavy Aviation Brigades for a total of ninety-six Pelican Dropships and fifty-six Roadrunner Dropships which wasn't even enough to move all of the men and equipment in a single Brigade, and it would require more than just men and a little equipment to fix the cluster fuck that was happening in Badate. However he had a substantial number of attack VTOLs and gunships; but he had to be careful not to reveal all of his cards in one go.

"We got roughly thirty-five percent of the information required for a surgical strike to get our people out." A technician replied.

"It'll have to do then, alert the 38th Aviation Brigade. Tell them to go pull our people out, all other units are to move to Thunder Valley and dig in. We got caught flat-footed by these bastards, but now let's make them regret picking a fight with humanity!" Williams growled and the command center of the Goliath mobile command vehicle erupted into cheers.

* * *

 **Codex entry: M-15 Mantis Anti-Personnel Sniper Rifle:** Developed by Hannibal Weapon Systems, the M-15 Avenger Sniper Rifle is a variant of the M-7 Lancer and is the result when the shotgun module is grafted unto the end of the Assault Rifle Module. When in this configuration, the M-15 Mantis is born. It fires the same .285 conical projectile that the M-7 Lancer does, but thanks to the longer barrel it gets a much higher velocity, it's not quite the 15 kilometers per second that the Barrett Model 99 Stanichon Sniper Rifle could achieve but it's close at 12 kilometers per second. Not to mention, the rounds fired by this thing has a higher sectional density and thus better penetration when compared to the M-7 Lancer. But the downside to this is that far more heat is produced, meaning less shots before the weapon overheats, only about three maybe four rounds before it overheats and thus automatically shuts down and vents the built up heat.

* * *

 **Codex Entry, Armax Arsenal Maelstrom Submachine Gun:** The standard issue sidearm for both Designated Marksmen as well as vehicle gunners and drivers. The Maelstrom is a relatively short ranged bullet hose firing 2.5mm projectiles to the tune of fifteen rounds per second and is capable of firing one-hundred twenty rounds before overheating. It was retired from use in the Turian military after the Shanxi Affair where it was revealed the weapon struggled to penetrate UNSCDF infantry armor.

* * *

 **Important notice, I've posted a poll with a list of possible alternate names that could be used in place of the name _Normandy_ , however the poll also includes the option for the ship to bear the canon name.**


	5. Gunship Rescue

**AN: Alright here we go for another chapter of The Reclaimer Effect. Before we start things off I will say it right now, this chapter marks the entry of the UNSC Defense Forces Army Branch into the conflict and unlike the Colonial Defense Forces, they don't use Mass Effect gear. Well, with the exception of Omni-Tools that is.**

 **Also, I do got a poll posted on my profile regarding the name of Commander Shepard's ship but I want to leave the decision of the name up to you, the choices are** _ **Normandy**_ **,** _ **Thunder Child**_ **,** _ **Donnager**_ **,** _ **Avery Johnson**_ **,** _ **Voi**_ **, and** _ **Of Uncommon Courage**_ **.**

 **Now onto the reviews, if you aren't interested in reading those, skip to the page break below.**

 **BUZ: We haven't seen mainline UNSCDF military forces yet. Just the Colonial Defense Forces, which uses older equipment for the most part, the new model of Spartan Laser being really the only exception because it's cheaper and allows for the use of replaceable power cells. They don't really get access to the majority of the fancy toys that the Army and Marine Corps gets. We will be seeing some of the fancy toys that they get in this chapter.**

 **Guest1: Halo lore doesn't apply, it's been nearly seventy-five fucking years after the end of the Human-Covenant War. In light of that I got to change things.**

 **Guest2: Yeah I agree with the fact that it does seem a little weird. As for combining ME and Halo tech, it's not a downgrade at all. Element Zero when put in a Warthog would allow it to conquer nearly anything thanks to it's 12.0-liter 6-cylinder Liquid Cooled Hydrogen-Injected Internal Combustion Engine. Plus R &D is looking into ways to make the energy weapons that the UNSCDF has work with ME in terms of storing them.**

 **Banana: Get it through your head, after seventy-five years everything about the firepower the UNSCDF is rocking will have changed. As for your second point, you obviously haven't heard about Moore's Law, Kryder's Law, Gilder's Law, or Nielsen's Law which is all about how quickly technology advances look them up. Third, there aren't that many Super-Dreadnoughts around, only the Citadel Council Races can afford to have them; plus the type was designed to go head-to-head with the Covenant Empire, not to mention we know ezero amount required grows exponentially but we don't have any baseline at all in terms of hard data.**

 **Also, Bioware and 343i. Please keep the legal attack dogs known as lawyers firmly muzzled and leashed.**

* * *

 **1345 Hours, February 5th 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi, City of Badate**

 **M890 Liger Main Battle Tank** _ **War Pig**_

"On the way!" Corporal Mzia Toreli of the Shanxi CDF, gunner of the M890 Liger Main Battle Tank _War Pig_ yelled as she pulled the firing stud. With a monstrous roar the massive 152mm/L50 coil gun fired, hurling a FS-HEAT round down range. The shot connected with it's target, a six-wheeled IFV with a turret mounting an Autocannon as well as a machine gun and detonated. The first charge on the tandem warhead completely stripping the kinetic barriers and leaving an ugly gash in the armor, the second charge blasting the vehicle apart like a plastic toy.

"Gunner, traverse left eight degrees! Target tank, load sabot!" The commander, Sgt. Viktor Filipov roared as an enemy shell bounced off the thick frontal armor with a loud _bang_.

Mzia rotated the turret and selected APFSDS, the capacitor bank thrummed as it charged while above in the unmanned turret the automatic loader selected the proper round and loaded into the gun with a barely audible _clank_. "Up!" Mzia barked as in the lower left hand corner of her sight the gun status went from **LOADING** to **CHAMBERED**.

"Fire!" Viktor snapped and Mzia pulled the firing stud and _War Pig_ voiced it's fury. The round howled forward at a velocity of six kilometers per second and crashed against the enemy hover tank's shields causing the round to shatter on impact, the momentum however transferred to the target and spun it some thirty degrees. However, the force of the blow caused the tank's shields to fail allowing for a portion of the two kilogram spike punched into the armor making it's front look like swiss cheese.

"Reload, Sabot!" The Viktor barked as the hostile tank realigned itself, but before it could fire the tank suddenly exploded when a shell ripped through the tank like it was paper.

"Thanks for aid, _Howler Monkey_." Viktor said as another MBT, this one an older M860 Scorpion Main Battle Tank rolled up.

Miza didn't hear the response but she had an idea and turned in her seat to face her commander. "Sir, can I make a suggestion?" she asked.

"What is it Corporal?" The commander asked.

"Our HEAT rounds seem to be more effective against the enemy vehicular shields. Not to mention we got no idea how effective our coaxial 25mm gauss repeater is but the steel-sheathed depleted uranium spikes that it fires ought to do a lot of damage to just about anything. If I may recommend sir, it would probably be for the better if we use solely HEAT and Plasma Rounds when firing the main gun at enemy vehicles, either that or we tinker with the capacitor settings so that the gun fires sabot rounds at a higher velocity, but it'll be absolutely hell on the magnetic coils if we go for the latter." Mzia said bluntly.

"Change the magnetic coil settings! I would rather be able to use all of our ammunition types then just a few." Viktor replied quickly.

"Yes sir!" Mzia said stiffly before turning back to her targeting computer and beginning to do that, it was relatively simple to adjust the capacitor settings so that way the muzzle velocity was higher when an APFSDS round was selected. The reverberating hum of the capacitors filled the compartment again as more energy flowed into them.

Suddenly an alarm went off. "We're painted! Move! Move!" Viktor shouted and the driver dropped the tank into reverse. _War Pig_ bellowed like a dinosaur as it went into reverse, while at the sametime the soft-kill APS system launched a set of thermal and millimeter wavelength radar blocking smoke grenades. Thick white billowing clouds erupted in front of the tank obscuring all vision.

Several seconds later a missile slammed into the ground where _War Pig_ had been just a moment before, detonating with a barely audible _crump_ tearing a small crater into the street where the MBT had been a moment before, causing bits of stone. "Can't see a thing! Going to Promethean Vision!" Mzia snapped as she hit the switch and the distinctive coloring of Promethean Vision overtook the sight, allowing her to see through the smoke.

"Enemy tank spotted! On the way!" She said before pulling the trigger and unleashing the sabot with _fifty_ megajoules of kinetic energy behind it. The hostile MBT erupted like a bomb exploding as the round sliced through shielding and armor like a Looney Tune going through a wall. "We got them!" Viktor whooped as he too witnessed the tank's demise through the Promethean Vision mode of his viewing slits.

At that instant three more vehicles came around the corner and promptly put fire into the smoke screen, the rounds punching holes into the smokescreen as they passed through it and causing loud bangs to resound through hull as they impaled the armor.

"Target PC! Load HEAT!" Viktor announced and Mzia selected the round and the autoloader quickly loaded the round.

"Up!" she announced as she brought her crosshairs onto the closest PC and the display screen went from **LOADING** to **CHAMBERED**.

"FIRE!" Viktor roared.

"On the way!" Mzia barked with authority as she hit the firing the stud and the main gun boomed and the glowing tracer connected with the vehicle and it erupted into flames like a volcano. "Target destroyed!"

Suddenly a much louder _wham_ rang through the hull as something smashed into the armor with tremendous force and the whole tank shook violently. "Identify that bastard!" Mzia snarled.

"Hostile TD, load HEAT!" Viktor announced but before Mzia could select the proper round. The TD was blown apart like a toy when _Howler Monkey_ fired it's Electro-Thermal Ignited Binary Liquid Propellant cannon and the tandem HEAT charge blew the hostile vehicle apart.

"Identify!" Mzia said as she brought the crosshair onto a new target.

"Hostile tank! Load sabot!" Viktor announced.

Mzia quickly selected the proper round and it went into the breach with a muted _clunk_. But before she could announce that they were ready to fire, the hostile fired and _Howler Monkey_ had a violent explosion tear through it's crew compartment with flames and smoke exploding out from the hatches. The fire rapidly engulfed the Scorpion MBT and a staccato popping resounded from it's burning hull as ammunition began cooking off.

"Goddamnit!" Viktor snarled.

"Up!" Mzia said quickly in response.

"Fire!"

"On the way!" and _War Pig_ 's main cannon voiced it's fury hurling a two-kilogram steel sheathed Depleted Uranium-cored armor penetrator towards the enemy but in the precious moments between the shot roaring out of the barrel and connecting. The hostile tank leaped to the right and instead of punching into the hostile dead center the shell sliced through it's shielding and carved a long gash in its side armor before punching through the entirety of several buildings. "Shit!" Mzia swore.

An enormous _wham_ then the whole MBT shook violently as an enemy round slammed into the heavy armor-plating that protected them as _another_ enemy tank rounded the corner.

"Jesus Christ! This is getting too hot for us! Back us up two blocks!" Viktor bellowed and with a rattling rumble, _War Pig_ went into reverse and flew down the street.

"Gun up! Sabot loaded!" Mzia announced as they passed the first intersection. The enemy MBT began to follow them.

"Fire!" Viktor shouted.

"On the way!" Mzia bellowed and _War Pig_ fired while going seventy kilometers per hour _in reverse_. This time the enemy tank maneuvered hard again, leaping to the side and the sabot shrieked by harmlessly, plowing through only God knew how many buildings before stopping.

The enemy tanks fired as one and _War Pig_ shook so violently it knocked Viktor's helmet askew. "That does it! Load Plasma!" he snarled as the enemy tank that was farther away fired again and with another explosions of sparks erupting from a point on the front of _War Pig_ 's as the round failed to penetrate.

Mzia selected the proper round and a Micro-Plasma Torpedo round was selected by the automatic loader and was loaded into the gun. Then a small vent that connected the gun chamber to the tank's fusion reactor opened and plasma roared into the chamber. In an instant, the unit activated and plasma was drawn in and shaped into it's legendary teardrop shape. All the while an incredibly lethal red glow built in the muzzle of the tank's cannon.

"Plasma round is primed and locked on target!" Mzia shouted as she put the crosshairs on the enemy tank and the distinctive warble of the lock-on tone played.

"Ruin his day - _fire!_ " Viktor bellowed and a moment later with a incredibly thunderous _boom_ , the electromagnetic coils engaged and the plasma round was launched out of the barrel at seven hundred meters per second. The enemy tank leaped to one side trying dodge the blazing ball of red hellfire.

But the plasma round adjusted course and shrieked onward, the tank's TROPHY system engaged and had absolutely no effect on the bolt of fire. It splashed across the kinetic barriers and the armor plating underneath instantly boiled away like water hitting molten titanium. The tank ballooned as the atmosphere contained within the hull flash ignited before detonating in a searing flash as the ammunition or fuel or quite possibly both went up and scattered the hostile vehicle all over the avenue.

"Hell yeah!" Mzia yelled gleefully as the other enemy tank promptly bugged out apparently not wanting to tangle with the Liger.

Then twenty seconds later a section of street several meters in front of them exploded with apocalyptic force, one thing could deliver a shell like that. "Artillery! Driver get us the hell out of this avenue!" Viktor yelled as the explosion buffeted the Liger and almost immediately another explosion erupted behind them.

The driver needing no encouragement threw the beast into reverse and put the pedal to the metal and the engine unleashed a thundering roar as the MBT rapidly backed up. All the while artillery rained down on them relentlessly, suddenly with a titanic _boom_ and the clattering of metal, _War Pig_ swerved to one side, angling themselves. The tank lurched to halt. "Shit! We've lost a track!" The driver shouted.

"Toreli scan for targets! We got to wait out this barrage before we can fix the track!" Viktor yelled as the barrage continued all around them, tearing up the avenue and sidewalks, shaking the tank brutally as if they were in a martini shaker.

* * *

 **1405 Hours, February 5th 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi**

 **Thunder Valley Airbase**

Thunder Valley Airbase was a decent sized airbase and it was home to two Heavy Aviation Brigades and at this moment one of those Heavy Aviation Brigades was preparing to depart for Badate. The noise from forty-eight D88H-TC Pelican Dropships, twenty-eight D85L-TC Roadrunner Dropships, and thirty-six G100 Emu Gunships spooling up was incredible; the nearly mind-numbing roar of the micro fusion drives that powered the Pelicans dueled with the reverberating whine's of the Emu's Impulse Drives which dueled in turn with the low oscillating hums of the Roadrunner's ezero drives, it all built in a glorious crescendo.

Running around the various craft, were numerous men and women doing final preparations for the force to depart. Each one of the aircrews was excited and eager to head out and meet the enemy head-on in order to rescue their comrades.

Two of Roadrunner Dropships had been set up for psychological warfare and thus apart from the two 2cm plasma cannons forward the ships were almost completely unarmed. In place of the two broadside doors that were usually their were gone and in its place was a pair of powerful speakers. The crews of the two dropships, named _Wagner's Fury_ and _Thunderstruck_ respectively, were having an argument about what to play for PSYOPS of all things.

"I am telling you Warrant Officer Pinho, one of the thing's that unnerved even the Covie's was Ride of Valkyries. To them it must have sounded like apocalypse was coming down on their heads." Lieutenant Fia Ljung snarled. Fia was the pilot for _Wagner's Fury_ and absolutely loved classical orchestra.

"So? We know shit about these bastards, for all we know these bastards could be scared shitless by Sabaton." Warrant Officer Igor Pinho retorted firmly. Unlike Fia he loved rock and roll, although he didn't like Flip music.

PSYOPS served an important role during air assaults, the sound of music particularly loud and foreboding music. So that way fear is instilled into the enemy which is further increased when dropships and gunships descends upon them unleashing hellicaious death in the form of plasma fire, gauss repeaters, and missiles to throw their forces into disarray. Then before they could get their bearings they would have to deal with lots of infantry and some vehicles were unleashed by the dropships while the gunships provided fire support. It had worked with varying degrees of success during the Human-Covenant War.

"You two arguing over what to play for PSYOPS again?" Private Carlo Mele asked as he passed, heading for another Roadrunner, mag clamped to his back was an MA7 Plasma Assault Rifle with a Master Key.

"Yes!" The two Roadrunner pilots snarled in unison.

"Should it be so obvious? One pilot gets to play the pump-up music while we are enroute and then for the attack run, the other gets to play the music they want, sirs." Carlo said and the two pilots blinked in unison.

"Right. Thanks Private." Igor said and Carlo nodded before running off, heading for a Roadrunner.

After he was gone however Fia glared at Igor. "Who gets to play the pump up music and who gets to play the music for the attack run?" she growled.

"Simple!" Igor replied. "I do the pump up music and you do the attack run." he said and Fia grinned.

"I like that idea!" Fia said.

"So what do we play then?" Igor asked.

"Maybe something simple like Primo Victoria." Fia replied.

"Sounds like a plan!" Igor said and together the two pilots got ready for the show.

Once they were ready, Fia nodded to Igor and together both of them hit play on their respective players.

" _Through the gates of hell_

 _As we make our way to heaven_

 _Through the Nazi lines_

 _PRIMO VICTORIA_ "

The heavy power metal song seemingly melded seamlessly with the sounds of aircraft getting ready for action. Every single UNSCDF Army Trooper and Airman that was deploying on this mission knew that they would be able to handle nearly anything.

* * *

 **1435 Hours, February 5th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi, city of Badate**

Turian Corporal Silia Belllus dove behind hardcover barely avoiding getting turned into a mangled mess by a human HMG position. Trying to control her racing heart she poked up and eyed the machine gun position and swore under her breath. It was a single barrelled machine gun of some description, the _chemical_ propellants that the weapon used made it sound like an enraged Vorcha. The constant stream of blazing yellow tracers that the weapon emitted was also different from what she was used too as well.

Still she had to take out that gun so that the remains of her squad could advance. She pulled out one of her two remaining grenades and got ready to throw it at the nest. But before she could, she heard another voice, Private Gallio Sursis yelled over the comms " _Backblast area clear!_ " then with a high-pitched shriek a rocket howled past her position and slammed into machine gun nest and detonated with a chest-pounding thunderclap.

The blast ripped the nest apart, sending debris and shrapnel flying in all directions. It also had the added benefit of silencing the machine gun. Silia leaped to her feet and yelled "Advance! Push them back!" before moving forward, her Crossfire Assault Rifle at the ready.

She barely managed to make it forward twenty paces before the much louder and heavier _BRRT BRRT BRRT_ of the enemy Mass Effect rifles roared to life. "Ambush!" Silia yelled for the umptieeth time that day and then diving for cover. She swore once again as one the three remaining soldiers in her squad was shredded by enemy fire and amid an enormous spray of blue blood exploding from his back, the vital signs flatlined.

Quickly poking slightly out of cover, her HUD outlined where the enemy soldiers were. She snapped her Crossfire to her shoulder and pulled the trigger, the soft and subtle _brrt brrt brrt_ that was emitted from the weapon came with a light and reassuring kick. The short and constant bursts controlled the heat build up considerably, not to mention it allowed her to maintain accurate fire longer. Thanks to that it allowed the powerful weapon to tear through the kinetic barriers of the enemy armor with ease. That was the easy part about the enemy hardsuits, they had weak kinetic barriers but the amount of armor protection that it provided was to the point that it was insane to the point that her Crossfire was nearly useless against the armor plating at all but close range. However they could penetrate the bodysuit and visor with ease which was good thing.

The main issue at hand was that while she could hit that target with no problem. Doing so in a full blown combat situation with bullets, rockets, mortar bombs, and artillery shells flying around was substantially more difficult. That said it wasn't impossible as she fired a sustained burst and one of the red outlined figures dropped amid a tremendous spray of red blood.

"Target down!" she whooped.

" _Spirits! I've lost shields!_ " Private Tevius Drusilius shouted in his distinctive twang.

"Oh Spirits dammit! This is getting ridiculous!" Silia snarled violently as she too took a burst and her shields flared violently as the rounds were stopped but had nearly depleted them as a result, forcing her back into cover.

Truth be told it was, the enemy weaponry was extremely powerful and while it wasn't as accurate as her Crossfire was. But the fact that while the enemy fought hard against them, they had some problems with discipline and if anything despite fighting hard, it was clear they were starting to break.

Silia poked out of cover and fired a burst from her rifle. But didn't hit anything and in response an enemy frag grenade went off with a thundering _boom_. In response to that more gunfire resounded and then an exultant cry came from Tevius " _Tango down!_ ".

 _Wham!_ Another enemy grenade detonated and the blast nearly deafened Silia not to mention knocked her off her feet while shrapnel pinged off her kinetic barriers. _To hell with this!_ Silia thought before getting on her radio. "This is Beta-Twelve, requesting fire support, over!" she barked.

" _This is artillery battery R45, we've received your fire support request B12, over!_ " The Fire Direction Center (FDC) replied.

"Affirmative, adjust fire, target is fifty meters north of my location over." Silia replied gruffly.

" _Adjust fire, target is fifty meters north of my location, over._ " FDC said.

"Enemy force composition estimated ten or twelve hostiles, in a three-story prefabricated building, over!" Silia said before swearing as exceptionally powerful rounds ripped through her cover and clipped her dropping her shields by a quarter, the kinetic energy transfer sending her spinning to the ground.

" _Enemy force composition estimated ten or twelve hostiles, in a three story prefabricated building, over!_ " FDC replied.

Silia threw a grenade of her own at the enemy which detonated with a _crump_ , but unfortunately none of the hostiles dropped off her motion radar. _Dammit, I shouldn't have thrown that blind!_ She thought angrily.

" _FDC to observer, one round HE-FRAG instant action fuse, over_." The FDC announced.

 _Now or never._ Silia thought. "Shot, over!" she called over the radio.

" _Shot, out!_ " FDC replied.

With a piercing whistle, seven 165mm HE-FRAG shells roared in, glowing like streaks of fire launched by the spirits themselves. The shells slammed into the ground, firmly bracketing the building, with one shell plunging through the roof and blowing the third floor apart, in the process silencing one of the enemy soldiers.

"R45 that's it! No change! No change! Fire for effect, over!" Silia roared with glee.

" _Affirmative, no change, fire for effect. Five rounds, HE-FRAG, over._ " FDC replied.

"Shot, over!" Silia yelled as another grenade detonated with a chest-pounding _boom_ and Tevius shrieked in pain as his BIOMONITOR flashed, indicating a serious injury.

" _Shot, out!_ " FDC replied.

Moments later, another piercing whistle ripped through the air as no-less than thirty-five high-explosive shells, five from each gun howled towards their target. Then moments later, it seemed like not only the building that she had designated for the bombardment but several others around the targeted structure erupted like volcanos. The explosions were nearly continuous as shell after shell slammed into them and exploded. Shrapnel sang through the air, producing a unique whistling sound, while dust, dirt, gravel, debris from the buildings, flames, and smoke roiled upward from the explosions. The whole strike took a matter of seconds and thoroughly leveled the structure.

"R35 good hits! Good hits! Target destroyed, over!" Silia cheered gratefully.

" _Affirmative B12, good hits, target destroyed, over and out._ " The FDC replied.

Silia then got up and quickly moved to where Tevius was, while signaling for what was left of her squad to take up an overwatch position. All that was left was just herself, Tevius, and Gallio; she would try her damndest to get them to safety.

She was slightly relieved to see that Tevius had remembered his training and had used his personal trauma kit to patch himself up. That said, there was a worrying amount of blood on the ground. "Think you can move Private?" she asked.

"I think so ma'am, but I am not sure. It would probably be best if we pull back. We're not in any condition to continue our advance." Tevius said weakly before trying to stand.

"As much as I dislike the idea, I am inclined to agree Private." Silia said shaking her head.

"Are we really pulling back ma'am?" Gallio asked.

"I am afraid so, we got to pull back." Silia said.

"Dammit!" Gallio said.

"Exactly, that's about how I feel about it. Regardless we need to pull back and regroup." Silia said before stooping and helping Tevius to his feet and slinging his arm across her shoulders. "Gallio, you got point. Guide us out of here."

"Yes ma'am!" Gallio replied before beginning to move away from the sounds of combat.

As they did so however, something new came around a corner ahead of them. It had the styling of a Hellion MBT with it's pike-shaped nose and rounded turret front, but it lacked the anti-gravity systems of the Hellion, instead it was a massive tracked monster and the guntube it mounted was even more threatening than the main weapon on the Hellion MBT, which was a mere 115mm Mass Acceleration Cannon, this monster mounted a massive 165mm Mass Acceleration Cannon with a 31.4mm coaxial Mass Acceleration Autocannon, the massive machine also mounted a Remote Weapon System which contained a 55mm Automatic Grenade Launcher and a 15mm Machine Gun, topping off the assemblage was a pair of sponsons each containing a 15mm Machine Gun.

Tevius whistled appreciatively. "So that's the new the Talon Super Heavy Tank. When I first heard of that thing, I thought the designers were compensating for something. But now, against who we are fighting and the fact that their tanks are house sized masses of death. Guess we need our own house-sized masses of death to fight there's." he said amid a hacking cough.

The massive Talon Tank rumbled past, behind it came nineteen more of the massive war machines, a full Company. They plowed onwards with heavy set determination and confidence as if they alone could shift the tide of the battle. Behind the Talons came two full companies of Hellions. It was a force that would send most enemies of the Hierarchy running away screaming in terror, but after what she had seen today, this would make them enemy merely shrug and then make that force pay for every centimeter of advance in _blood_.

That was something that had Silia worried, it wasn't the fact that they couldn't indeed beat these guys. They were. No the problem was that they were fighting with such determination and ferocity, that even she was taken aback. There hadn't been any hand-to-hand fighting, yet but given the ferocity and determination with which the enemy was fighting it was only a matter of time before it occurred.

Still it didn't make any Spirits-damned sense. They were obviously losing, why weren't they surrendering? It seemed as though they were determined to fight to the death. It made absolutely no sense though, she knew that they were protecting their homes but the way they were fighting just didn't make sense to her.

She shook her head and signaled for her squad to move on, continuing to head for the rear. They were nowhere near full fighting strength and continuing their advance was simply suicidal in the face of extremely determined enemy resistance. One of the lessons that training had hammered into her was that it was better to spend lives for something worthwhile then to waste them for little gain and right now, continuing to advance would just result in more lives being wasted.

* * *

 **1450 Hours, February 5th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi, City of Badate**

With an immense roar, the alien demolition charge detonated and the hastily assembled barrier of wrecked ground cars and concrete barriers was blown apart as effortlessly as a leaf being blown away in the wind. The first defender back on his feet was Fred and as he glanced at his HUD and scowled, that charge had been expertly tossed so that it had annihilated the Bicentennial gun that had formed the lynchpin of their defense line, not to mention had dealt a severe blow to both of the assembled teams. Then he checked his rifle and scowled, the lower receiver was bent severely, rendering the rifle useless. It had probably happened when he had landed on it. Scowling he discarded the rifle and drew his plasma pistol.

"Warwolf and Archangel Teams pull back to quaditary defensive positions! Werewolf team get ready, because we're going to be coming back with a bunch of bad guys on our backs." He ordered.

A grand total of three status lights winked back at him in response from Warwolf team and one status light winked at him from Archangel team. Regardless he was relieved when the few remaining status lights of Werewolf team winked at him.

"Roger Warwolf Actual! We'll give them a warm welcome!" Werewolf Actual replied.

"Execute." He said and as one they pulled back.

Fred succeeded in taking about ten steps back towards the defensive line when suddenly something hit him full in the back. It wasn't a bullet or a rocket, but whatever it was, its effects were immediately obvious. Because it seemed like gravity decided to take a number and hauled him, weighing fully kitted in his armor with all the equipment he was lugging nearly two hundred kilos into the air.

"What the fuck, who turned off gravity?!" Fred demanded in shock as he shifted his center of gravity and spun around, his momentum carrying him forward but swinging him around so that he was facing where the thing had come from. Judging by the other cries of surprise and alarm, whatever had decided to reverse the gravity had snared his comrades as well.

Then gunfire scythed through the air, almost immediately it downed the shields of Archangel three and quickly riddled her bodysuit. Blood sprayed from over a dozen wounds and her BIOMONTIER let out a piercing shriek before going silent as her vitals flatlined, her form going limp. The gunfire died away and almost immediately started back up, the enemy having shifted targets.

Fred realized that they were using this reversal of gravity to merely gun them down. He wouldn't stand for it. He snapped his Stinger Plasma Pistol up and aimed at the figures that were beginning to become visible and fired five times, five glowing green teardrop shaped bolts of energy erupted from the end of the weapon and caught one of the figures dead center in the torso. Some sort of shielding flared, sputtered, and died after four bolts of energy, allowing the fifth to punch into him, the armor offered no resistance, the bullet resistant body glove caught _fire_ and with a horrific gurgling the sound, the Bird dropped to the ground. A smoking hole the size of his fist in it's chest.

The hostiles scattered and a moment later, whatever had caused gravity to go absolutely wanked wore off and deposited everyone painfully onto the ground. "Right, the hell was that shit?!" Mark demanded.

"Don't know, we need to pull back as quick as we can. Ash, give me a smoke grenade, I'll cover your retreat." Fred said as he fired his plasma pistol again, providing covering fire.

"Here!" Ash said and Fred caught the grenade in one hand while still firing the Plasma Pistol.

"Thanks, pull back. I'll link up with you later." He said fingering the grenade before pulling the pin and dropping it. The grenade bounces once and rolled to a stop and then began spewing smoke that could block both thermal and motion radars, quickly engulfing the entire group. "Ash, Mark, Iryana pull back to that defensive position. I'll catch up with you." Fred ordered.

"But sir, there's at least six of them and they can bend the laws of physics to their will." Iryana said nervously.

Fred chuckled darkly. "They can bend the laws of physics or make them null for short periods of time, which is a factor that I've never had to deal with before. That said, I am going to be careful, but the one thing I've got going for me is that they probably haven't faced a Spartan before."

"Right, still be careful boss." Iryana replied.

"I will." Fred said before advancing towards the hostile force. With a practiced motion, he drew his combat knife, twelve inches of lethal Damascus Steel and balanced superbly to the point that it could be thrown accurately which made it different from the Bayonet because it wasn't balanced for throwing and it didn't have the minor multipurpose functions that the bayonet did. This blade was made for one thing, killing. He held both the blade and his plasma pistol and advanced.

Appearing from the smoke, he managed to surprise the hostiles, not surprising really, one man against ten? That wasn't a fair fight. The aliens however had finally gotten a nickname from his team which had started calling Birds due to their avian appearance. He noted that they all had this faint blue aura around them, it probably had to do with whatever the hell their reality bending powers were. He took note of their form, for the most part it was what he had expected, Special Forces level, probably not to the degree that he had received and they probably didn't have all of the years of experience that he had. But he was expecting at the very least a level of training similar to the UNSCDF Force Recon Marines, maybe even the Navy's Orbital Drop Shock Troopers but then again the ODSTs brought a special kind of crazy to the battlefield and their level of training most certainly wasn't on par with the training that the Spartans received.

Thus he would have to be careful, but if he could get in close, he was certain that he would rather effortlessly tear them apart. It had been said once that comparing an ODST or even one of the old S-IVs to a Spartan-II was like putting a top-level athlete against a near supernatural monster. Regardless their reality-bending powers were a massive game changer that he had never encountered before and thus until he knew the full extent of them would have to be careful.

The enemy began to bring their rifles to there shoulders getting over their shock and in an instant Fred _moved_ and he wasn't surprised when the enemy didn't fire. Mainly because it wasn't everyday you saw one man charge ten men armed with only a combat knife and a pistol.

He quickly selected a target and started moving towards the alien while firing his plasma pistol at another. The first green bolt of energy completely slagged an enemy's rifle and caused him to drop the ruined weapon in shock and amazement instead of evading allowing several shots to splash across his barriers and then for a trio to punch deep into his chest and toss him onto the ground with an explosion of steam, blood, flesh, bone, and flame as the plasma bolts tore through his armor with ease.

Now Fred weighed about one hundred thirty eight-kilograms without his armor, his Gladiator Hardsuit weighed an additional forty-five kilograms on it's default mass setting, then you throw in the roughly ten kilograms of additional gear, ammunition, etc. that he was carrying. All told you had someone who weighed about one hundred ninety three kilograms or four hundred twenty-five pounds. Then you throw in his speed, he dropped his shoulder and slammed into the alien at a speed of thirty-five kilometers per hour and was still accelerating when he did so. To put that in perspective, he was hitting with more force than a wicked football tackle delivered by a lineman and the injuries that resulted from those tackles could be pretty damn severe plus that was _with_ padding and they didn't have anywhere close to the speed that Fred had achieved before impact. Thus the result wasn't all that surprising.

Whatever protected the alien failed with a resounding _crack_ and a slight whoosh of air which barely slowed Fred down. This was followed by rather satisfying _crunch_ and something gave under the hammer blow, resulting in a pained shriek escaping from the alien as it was effortlessly swept off it's feet and launched backward. He hit the ground and tumbled several times before coming to a stop, unmoving.

The Spartan-II however was already in motion after the blow fell and sighted up another target and fired the plasma pistol as fast as the weapon could cycle, seven shots put another soldier on the ground shrieking in agony, his torso having developed a deep hole the size of the Spartan's fist.

He saw a flash of blue and leaped forward into a combat roll, dodging something as the enemy began to get over their shock at what had just occurred. Three of their number down before they had even fired a shot and now they were furious.

Gunfire rent the air, the enemy rifles spat hatred but it was for naught because there target was just too quick, the tracers constantly falling behind their target. A blurring whirlwind of death moving far too fast for unaugmentated eyes to follow, his weapon constantly moving and spitting green death.

Another alien fell without a sound as a fusillade of energy bolts slammed into his barriers and they evaporated allowing several to nearly completely vaporize his head. The alien jerked and fell, his finger squeezing the trigger spasmodically and sending bullets shrieking upwards into the air.

The next Bird fell with only a gurgled cry of surprise as his foe first crushed his rifle while it was in his hands and then buried a knife up to the hilt in his temple, twisting the blade and then yanking it out with a spray of blue blood.

Gunfire and blue pulses flew in the direction of the collapsing alien, tearing it apart and tossing it backwards amid a gigantic spray of blue blood, but their target was already moving on as another alien collapsed with a shriek of agony as a long sustained burst of plasma bolts splashed across his barriers and while they didn't collapse, it effectively cooked him alive due to the incredible heat, the bodysuit of his armor catching _fire_.

The alien rifles suddenly ceased firing and began beeping in complaint as the weapons overheated. The Birds as one dropped their rifles which hit the ground with a thud and as one they pulled out their SMGs and began to spray at the blurring figure while throwing more blue pulses. But their motions seemed to be slowing as they did so, as if throwing each blue pulse took something out of them.

Not that it mattered, for another Bird suddenly wailed in pain as his weapon and hands were crushed by an iron hard grip. But that wail barely lasted a second before it stopped as the unfortunate one had a knife tear his throat out in a violent explosion of blue blood.

Another alien _charged_ forward at incredible speed, the velocity that it achieved in such a short span surprising the S-II, a blade flash-forming from his omni-tool. The S-II shifted his movement the moment he spotted the onrushing hostile, twisting away from a tackle that by all rights should've connected before with the reflexes that only a S-II had, grasping him and then pivoting, allowing the incredible momentum that the Bird had somehow built up to suddenly work against him. Centrifugal force tore the alien off his feet and then was sent flying as fast as a runaway truck when the Spartan released him, he hit an upside ground car with so much force that car _bent_ under the force of the blow amid an explosion of blue blood.

The last two aliens, who were probably stunned and now horrified at what was happening simply broke and ran. Trying to escape from the _thing_ that had effortlessly broken eight men single-handedly. Keyword being is that they were _trying_ to escape.

A burst of seven plasma bolts caught one square in the back, which failed after three plasma bolts and had a hole five inches in diameter materialize in it and punch all the way through his torso. He collapsed with a horrific sounding screech.

However, in a brilliant ploy of psychological warfare. Fred decided to let the last alien escape. So that it could inform his comrades of what had happened here and thus strike fear into the enemy.

Total engagement time: 135.45 seconds.

Satisfied the Spartan-II turned around a jogged back towards friendly positions, this day was far from over. Not to mention, they were constantly being forced backwards by the aliens, going on the offensive was suicidal not without support.

* * *

 **1458 Hours, February 5th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi, City of Badate**

"Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!" Turian Cabal Private Diia Remitis shouted fearfully as she dove into an alley just to get the hell away from whatever that Spirits-damnable _thing_ had been! Nothing that she knew could've been able to tear apart a Cabal with such ease that it looked like child's play and _nothing_ should be able to move that fast without biotics!

What had it been? She doubted that it had been a mech, it's movements had been way too fluid and graceful for it to be a mech, which meant it had to have been an organic. That thing had moved with a grace that an aerobatic would be expected to have while performing in the gymnasium and _not_ on the battlefield! She took deep breaths, trying to get her heart under control as it was hammering away like a jackhammer.

She slumped against a wall as the enormity of what had just happened sank in. An entire Cabal nearly wiped out by one man, something like that was only possible if a Cabal wound up on the wrong end of a pissed off Asari Commando Squad, an Asari Matriarch, or a Krogan Battlemaster. Not against one man who didn't even _have_ biotics and yet by all rights, that man should be dead; not the nine Turians he had ripped to pieces in close quarters combat with such ease that it had looked like child's play.

How many _other_ soldiers did they have like that?

Just thinking about that thought chilled her to the bone, it was bad enough that the enemy didn't give ground easily. Now they had soldiers that could tear apart biotics in Close Quarters Battle with ease. What else did they have, it made her wonder and it didn't bode well at all.

The sound of running feet made her stand up. Biotic power flared around her form ready to ruin anyone's day. But she was incredibly relieved when it was in fact a group of fellow Turian soldiers who came tearing into the alley.

"Where's the rest of your Cabal?" Their leader asked worriedly, not surprising considering she was a member of a Cabal and as such held with suspicion and distrust among the rank and file.

"Wasted sir." Diia replied in a tone that conveyed that she didn't quite believe it either.

"How?!" Came a startled response.

"I don't know how! It was one man or thing, I don't know what the Spirits-damned thing was but it was _fast_ , I mean it was as if the thing had been blessed by the Spirits themselves! Damn untouchable too and he had a level of speed and strength that I've never seen before outside of a Krogan, I mean whatever it was managed to redirect a _biotic charge!_ " Diia said slumping.

"Shit, please tell me that you got a recording of this thing." The lead soldier replied.

"I did, but it probably won't be much help. I didn't get much of a look at the thing, it was too fast." Diia replied as she fumbled with a meal pack before succeeding in tearing the thing open. All of the biotic attacks she had thrown futility at her opponent had left her seriously drained.

"Great, what's next?" The lead Turian replied.

"I don't want to know." Diia said simply.

* * *

 **1520 Hours, February 5th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi, City of Badate**

 **M890 Liger Main Battle Tank** _ **War Pig**_

With a gigantic roar and an immense pillar of flame erupting out of it's turret, another M860 Scorpion Main Battle Tank died to an enemy Main Battle Tank. Viktor noticed however that these enemy tanks were vastly different from the ones that _War Pig_ had been chewing up earlier.

For one they weren't hover tanks like the other ones were, but instead were tracked monsters that mounted an absolutely _huge_ main gun. Whenever the gun fired, it sounded less like a tank cannon but more like an artillery cannon voicing it's wrath. Not to mention it actually had shields that could stop a fifty megajoule spike shot, although they were pretty much useless against plasma rounds and did exactly shit against lasers.

To punctuate that fact, a Spartan Laser discharged. The blinding green beam of energy that the weapon unleashed speared one of the enemy… Super Heavies and cored through it's armor with effortless ease and although he couldn't hear the noise, it must have been impressive for the enemy tank jerked to a stop and flames exploded out of every single hatch, rapidly engulfing the vehicle in a hellish firestorm.

"Plasma up and primed!" Mzia shouted.

" _Fire_!" Viktor roared, peering through the vision slits at the tank they were targeting.

"On the way!" Mzia barked and depressed the firing stud. With a roar the main gun discharged and a bolt of red hellfire streaked from the Liger and slammed into an enemy Super Heavy. The thing's shields flared brilliantly as they stopped the physical aspect of the round but the armor flash vaporized under the intense heat and then with a blinding flash, the atmosphere inside the tank ignited. A roiling ball of fire vomited upwards and the vehicle stopped it's advance, when the smoke cleared it revealed that the entire front end of the tank was _gone_ replaced by a massive gaping wound, flames crackling out of the various hatches. The paint work literally scorched to the point that it was unrecognizable, secondary explosions further ripping the tank apart as ammunition cooked off and fuel ignited.

"That was our last plasma round boss! How the hell are we going to stop this push?!" Mzia shouted as a subtle but noticeable _boom_ rang through the tank as the thick armor plating defeated a shot from an enemy vehicle, judging by the noise a shot from an enemy TD.

"Shit! This isn't good, we're going to need more firepower to stop this push." Viktor said as _War Pig_ shook yet again, much more violently as another enemy round crashed against the vehicle's armor plating, an MBT shot.

"Identify!" Mzia shouted, marking a target on Viktor's HUD. That was how it worked, the gunner marked targets and the commander would identify them and specify the round.

"Hostile tank, give me a sabot!" Viktor shouted as the tank shook again from _another_ hit. "This is getting too hot! Driver back us up two blocks!" he added.

With a thunk, the Liger MBT dropped into gear and then roared backward. It's grinding treads kicking up plumes of earth, dust, and gravel as it accelerated backwards. "Up!" Mzia yelled as more shells crashed against the armor.

"Fire!" Viktor barked as a enemy shell landed right in front of them and bounced into the air sending a plume of dirt and gravel skyward, the glowing tracer arching into the distance.

"On the way!" Mzia replied and fired the main gun. The round shed it's sabot and shrieked through the air. It effortlessly plowed it's way through the shielding on an enemy hover tank and then through the armor. The Depleted Uranium core fracturing as it punched through the armor, maintaining it's sharp point and creating a lot of heat. When it burst through the backplate of the spall liner and into the crew compartment, the air caught fire and thus ignited the ammunition. With a violent explosion the turret was thrown into the air as if it was weightless and the tank crashed to the ground dead.

"Target destroyed!" Viktor announced as the Liger slid into its next defensive position.

There was a green flash and another enemy super heavy immolated itself as it was struck by a Spartan Laser. But for the most part, the enemy MBTs were using their Super Heavies as several extra meters of frontal armor. One of the monsters fired it's main gun and the shot plowed into building and promptly it seemed like the entire building it had been targeting had been struck by a bomb for it was simply blown apart.

"Sabot, sabot! Enemy Super!" Viktor said as another shell shrieked through the air and exploded in a lethal air burst. The blast tearing apart a pair of Warthogs with effortless ease.

"Up!" Mzia shouted.

"Fire!" Viktor replied.

"On the way!" the gunner yelled and fired. The shot roared out of the barrel and crashed against the vehicle's shields, shattering on impact. They became fully visible for several seconds from the force of the blow and the vehicle visibly shuddered.

"Reloading!" Mzia yelled.

"Hit'em with the coax! Same target! Same target!" Viktor yelled as the hostile swung it's massive main cannon towards them.

The shields of the target flared again as another shot crashed against the shields, from probably the last Scorpion that was still around. In response another enemy Super-Heavy fired and the Scorpion was ripped apart with effortless ease. That Super-Heavy was then destroyed when a Spartan Laser discharged and speared through it's armor with ease and ignited the atmosphere inside.

With a heavy crackling bellow, the heavy gauss repeater that _War Pig_ mounted coaxially came to life. The steel-sheathed DU spikes tearing into the shields and setting them aglow as hundreds of rounds began hammering them mercilessly. With a shriek a rocket flew by and impaled the enemy tank that the Liger was firing upon.

The hostile rumbled out of the explosion relatively unharmed but the heat of the blast had left a noticeable scorch mark across the right side of the tank's pike nose. The fire that was obviously being focused on it tearing it's shields down quickly.

"Gun up!" Mzia yelled.

"Fire!" Viktor yelled and both the alien tank and _War Pig_ fired at the sametime.

 _War Pig_ 's shot lost most of it's velocity when it struck the shielding but the shielding had been depleted severely enough by two APFSDS rounds, a 50mm HEAT rocket, and probably the better part of four hundred twenty-five millimeter gauss rounds and thus it knifed through the depleted shielding then penetrated the hull. The vehicle erupted like a volcano, flames and smoke exploding outward from the vehicle's hatches and sponsons as the lethal effects that Depleted Uranium cored rounds had came into play. With a heaving roar, the safety measures engaged and fire roared out of them as the ammunition cooked off. Moments later a large secondary explosion turned the smaller turret on top into confetti as something cooked off, resulting in a geyser of flame shooting skyward.

The results of the alien tank round on the other hand while they weren't as impressive as _War Pig_ 's hit but the effects were similar. The heavy projectile slammed into _War Pig_ square in the turret directly under the main gun. With a terrifying sound of shattering composites and rending metal the shot muscled past the armor of the Liger's turret front like a hot knife through butter and ripped the mechanisms contained within apart. The amount of heat caused by the penetration resulted in the air igniting and with a horrific sounding _roar_ the FS-HEAT and Bunker Buster munitions exploded. The safety measures of the turret engaged and directed the force of the blast both sideways and up, the gouts of flame that erupted from the turret made it look like an irate hydra breathing fire.

"Holy shit!" Mzia screamed over the fracus and violent shaking. "Main and coaxial guns destroyed!"

"Driver get us the fuck out of here! Launch smoke!" Viktor yelled as a another rocket flew past and slammed into an enemy Super-Heavy, causing it's shields to flare but the damage was relatively minimal. An instant later, the tank blew itself apart as green beam of pure energy sliced through the armor like tissue paper and ignited the ammunition, atmosphere, and fuel contained within.

"Smoke out!" Mzia replied as _War Pig_ shuddered under the hammering force of another direct hit. Smoke grenades exploded out from their launchers and created a thick white pall.

The Liger shifted into reverse and rapidly back-pedalled away from the chaos. Her weapons destroyed and thus completely combat ineffective. The survivors that could used the smoke screen to fall back. Despite that however, the tenuous defensive line that the CDF had managed to establish of which War Pig had been the lynchpin of now began to crumble under the ruthless alien advance.

Defeat for the CDF now seemed all but inevitable and the aliens knew it. They began pushing even harder against the rapidly faltering defense.

* * *

 **1505 Hours, February 6th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi,**

 **38th Heavy Aviation Brigade en route to Badate**

The rumble of engines from the various airborne dropships and gunships was surprisingly muted while the situation onboard the UNSCDF vehicles was tense. Each of the ships were fitted for war and it showed, missile and rocket pods hung off the wings of the Pelicans and Emus while the chingun of each of the two craft was either an intimidating railgun or a heavy plasma cannon.

"Sir, we're roughly five minutes out from Badate." Second Lieutenant Blake Lowe told his pilot, Captain Alexis Peri.

"Right then, all craft assume attack formation. Put on Psywar Op make it loud, a little bit of Romeo Foxtrot, shall we dance?" Alexis said over the radio.

The reply from the two PSYOP dropships was almost immediate. " _Yes sir!_ "

This was followed by some very distinctive strings, setting the baseline tempo for the tune. Then the trumpets began, a slow _dada-dada-dada_. Peri for his part grinned widely as the music continued to play.

The various craft rapidly formed up into their formation, lowering their altitude as they did so. All the while the music continued to build and build, seemingly blending in with the thunder of the engines.

The few soldiers that were onboard the dropships began going through final equipment checks and preparing their weapons. On a Roadrunner Dropship one man, a door gunner, opened the back of a M-3500 Plasma Cannon and slapped an energy cell into the hungry receiver before closing it, the weapon thrummed with power as the safety was flicked off a subtle but menacing blue glow building in the maw of the weapon.

On another dropship one soldier took the energy cell for an MA7 out of a pouch on his Guardian Infantry Powered Armor and tapped it against the helmet before feeding the cell into his rifle and flicking the safety off. The weapon thrummed deeply with what seemed like eagerness to let energy bolts fly.

On another Roadrunner, the pilot armed his dropship's two Model 38 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Cannons, the weapons hummed slightly as their capacitors charged ready to unleash the type of destruction only brought on by laser weaponry.

Flying near the Roadrunner Light Dropship, the crew one of the mighty Emu Gunships went through their own final preparations. "70mm Plasma Cannon is hot and ready to fire, Hyena Rocket Pods primed, Wyvern Anti-Tank Missile Pod primed, ANVIL-X Missile Pod prepped, energy shields are fully charged, emergency hard light barrier warmed up, and ECM pods ready." First Lieutenant Dyal Shree, the gunship's Wizzo (Weapon Systems Officer) said calmly.

"Excellent, start looking for targets Wizzo." The pilot said bluntly, adjusting the pitch slightly to keep the gunship in formation.

"Christ, I got targets. Twelve of the biggest, meanest tanks I've ever seen with heavy vehicle and infantry support. From what IFFs I got, the CDF has been just about broken in the face of that armor push. I got exactly _one_ friendly tank from CDF that is still alive but according to its IFF but it's been mission-killed. The CDF is probably just about out of ammunition and luck." The Dyal said as he brought the Emu's vast array of sensors to bear. Numerous vehicles ranging from hulking tracked behemoths that looked more at home in some video game rather than the battlefield, two different types of sleek and fast looking hover vehicles with one obviously being a tank and the other an MLRS, lastly was a six-wheeled vehicle that seemed to serve as an IFV but he did spot several variants of that primary design.

A moment later multiple tanks and vehicles had TGT boxes appear around them. The pilot of the gunship grimaced, life was about to get incredibly ugly for the infantry that was around those machines for the simple reason that when gunships entered the fray they became ordnance magnets. Something which was about to be proved in a very nasty fashion.

" _ETA ninety seconds!_ " The squadron's XO yelled over the freq.

"Wizzo acquire targets and get ready to unleash hell!" The pilot announced.

"Yessir!" Dyal replied before selecting the ANVILs, the powerful missiles would easily tear the enemy vehicles apart. Problem was that the Emu like the others were carrying only one pod of eight ANVILs and one pod of twelve Hyenas ATGMs. But he wasn't entirely sure that the Hyenas could kill those big monsters, despite the fact that the Casaba Howitzer warhead it packed could tear through nearly three meters of RHA. Better to use the overkill option before learning beforehand.

He gently brought the targeting brackets down upon the hostile tank and locked it in. He repeated the process twice more, locking those tanks up as well and then designating a single ANVIL for each one.

The strike force came in fast and low, streaking over the outskirts of the city. As the music reached its crescendo, a single order went out. "All units, weapons free! Let'em have it!"

What ensued was pure overkill as the thirty-six Emu gunships began ripple firing their Hyenas in bursts of four rockets from the two pods each one carried. The first salvo contained over two hundred rockets, each of the 77mm High-Velocity Rockets contained a sizeable penetrating blast fragmentation high-explosive warhead. The rockets ripped through buildings, vehicle shielding and armor, and infantry with such ease as a combine harvester taken to a wheat field. In a matter of moments over fifty infantry were dead with many more wounded and at least a dozen vehicles were enveloped in flames when they lost shields and then took a direct hit from the lethal warheads.

But none of the enemy tanks died to the rockets, their heavier shields and more durable armor allowing them to shrug off the relatively small warhead that each rocket contained with little trouble. The flaring from each rocket impact was noticeable as shrapnel pinged off of them or if they took direct hits.

Not that it mattered, for even as the Emus continued their remorseless rocket barrage they opened fire with their Wyverns and ANVILs. These missiles were _much_ more powerful than the Hyenas and it showed the moment that the more powerful warheads landed among enemy.

One tracked monster took a direct hit from an ANVIL-X and despite its powerful shielding and incredibly tough armor-plating. It was already pushed to its limits from the rockets and thus it couldn't stop a warhead that when it detonated it did so with the fury of a star. The blinding golden-white flash of plasma explosives engulfed the vehicle and almost immediately there was a large secondary explosion that tore the vehicle apart with an immense fireball vomiting skywards.

When the light from the blast faded, it revealed a vehicle that was beyond decimated. A large section of the pike nose, the main gun, coaxial gun, and a sizeable part of the front half of the turret had been completely vaporized by the blast. Material had been turned from a solid to a liquid state in an instant and was now streaming down the vehicle and forming pools of molten material around it. Flames crackled greedly as they consumed the vehicle in it's embrace, blow out panels and a funky little turret on top having been blown out. Another violent explosion rocked the tank and an absolutely enthralling geyser of _black_ fire wrapped in blinding white which in turn was wrapped in dark blue like a candle erupted from an area that appeared to be in front of the engine but behind the turret and spewed a good twenty or thirty feet into the air, sparks spewing from the area.

The reaction from the enemy infantry and vehicles around the dead tank was interesting. They simply scattered, running in all directions trying to get the hell away from the geyser of fire spewing tank as if their lives depended on it. Even the hostile infantry abandoned their cover despite the fact that they were under gunship attack. It was strange and didn't make a lick of sense.

A number of the vehicles didn't make it as they were pegged by ANVILs or Wyverns and ripped apart and the infantry now in the open, was ruthlessly shredded by rockets, railgun, and plasma. Then suddenly, the black fire spewing tank vanished as it was consumed by an _absolutely_ tremendous explosion. Everything within thirty-five meters of the tank seemingly _evaporated_ in a blinding black-blue sphere of decimation while an immense shockwave tore through the air, flattening buildings, sending cars, Warthogs, and Pumas tumbling like tumbleweeds, and tossing soldiers on both sides like toys for dozens of meters.

"Holy _FUCK!_ " Dyal roared in shock as the shockwave struck the Emu with the force of an angry God and nearly sent it tumbling from the sky. A sentiment that was voiced by every single other pilot and Wizzo in the UNSCDF strike force. The shockwave was so powerful that it ripped an entire wing assembly off of three Pelicans and sent them tumbling into the ground, they hit ground hard and slid for several meters before coming to a smoking stop. The case was also true for five unfortunate Roadrunner Light Dropships.

" _Goddamnit!_ " Alexis shouted over the comms as his Pelican nearly crashed as well as well shock from what had just occurred. " _Well that was interesting! All units you spot any more of those strange black fires, pull the hell up! I don't want to lose anymore dropships or God-forbid any gunships to those things!_ " he added.

The flurry of replies and status lights winking in response as the crews acknowledged the order.

" _This is War Pig! We need evacuation pronto, those Super Heavies can pen our armor and we can't shoot back!_ " a sharp Ukrainian accented voice yelled over the radio.

" _This is Pelican Gamma Three-Twenty-One, roger that War Pig. Back up two blocks and we'll pick you up._ " A soft feminine voice with a Harvest accent replied.

" _Thanks Gamma Three-Twenty-One!_ " The commander of the Liger said as it's engine roared and tracks clattered as the tank moved to the pick up point.

" _This is Roadrunner Lima Zero-Two-One. We're coming in for approach, Emu Two-Seven-Niner cover us!_ " One of the Roadrunner's said.

"Roger that, Drayal you see any hostile vehicle or infantry terminate by any means necessary." The pilot said as the Roadrunner descended and the Emu assumed overwatch.

"Affirmative." Drayal replied.

" _Twenty meters off the deck, continuing descent, fifteen meters, ten meters…_ " The pilot continued as the Roadrunner got lower and lower to the deck. It's belly thrusters flaring with power and slowing the craft.

Suddenly the motion tracker lit up. "Whoa! Multiple contacts, engaging!" Drayal shouted and then selected the plasma cannon, brought it's piper up and swept it across dozens of infantry hostiles. The monstrous 500 kw output plasma cannon roared it's lethal fury, unleashing a storm of indigo colored plasma bolts. The torrents of energy swept over the hostile positions and instantly they began dropping off his HUD like flies as they were exposed to a level of firepower that could put down _Spartans_ with little trouble. The lucky ones took a plasma bolt and were killed instantly as shields, armor, and flesh simply evaporated like an ice cube thrown into a boiler. The unfortunate ones… took a near miss and the sheer heat of the energy bolt caused their entire body glove to simply catch fire or the energy would hit a limb and reduce it to ash.

The somewhat avian looking aliens didn't break under the intense barrage and a few of the exceptionally brave or exceptionally stupid ones fired rockets at the Emu and the Roadrunner while maybe a handful retreated, just because so many had been felled so quickly. The relatively small dropship jerked to the side, avoiding the rockets quite easily as did the Emu with the exception of one rocket. It slammed into Emu's energy shields and detonated in a greasy fireball, causing them to flare with golden energy as well as severely shaking gunship. In retaliation, Drayal fired a salvo of sixteen rockets into the enemy positions, sending fire and shrapnel tearing through them as effortlessly as chainsaw slicing through paper mache.

The dropship landed and immediately members of the CDF made a break for the Roadrunner. It seemed that the aliens were pulling back in the face of overwhelming firepower. That's when suddenly the RWR alarm went off and Drayal's pilot swore before pitching the Emu to the side violently, rolling the craft launching flares and chaff.

"Missile evaded!" He shouted, his tone nearly betraying his own fear.

"I see the smoke trail, back tracking bearing. Gotcha, active emitter shining nice and bright, looks like a mobile SAM launcher, acquiring target. Rifle! Rifle!" Drayal said, squeezing the trigger and with a brief _whoosh_ a ANVIL-X leaped out of it's tube and rocketed towards it's target.

The missile streaked up into it's top attack mode and came down like Thor's hammer on top of the unlucky vehicle. It dissolved in the distinct flash of plasma explosives, shrapnel flying in all directions as the warhead simultaneously blew it apart and vaporized it.

A Roadrunner Dropship swept low and opened fire with it's laser cannons, beams of green energy racked across hostile positions and as Drayal watched a quartet of vehicles went up like dominos as they got hit before he could bring the Emu's wide range of ordy to bear on them. A moment later however, a fifth hostile appeared. This one was a tank, it fired it's main gun and the Roadrunner had it's shields blow spectacularly as the round punched through them with ease, then the shot plowed into the Light Dropship and the front of the thing merely crumpled under the hammer blow. Flames exploded outward from the passenger compartment and the craft nosed over, entering a death dive belching flames and smoke. It hit the ground, flipped over and promptly exploded in a vibrant fireball.

"I got tone! Rifle! Rifle!" Drayal said as he promptly locked up the enemy tank and fired a Wyvern at the hostile. It covered distance while climbing effortlessly, then it nosed over and dove, coming in almost straight down. It slammed into the enemy tank's shields and the first part of it's tandem warhead exploded, the conventional HEAT charge effortlessly burning through the inherently weaker top shields that protected the vehicle with effortless ease. Then the massive main charge detonated, the small Casaba Howitzer tore through armor like paper, completely vaporizing a sizeable section of the turret roof and tearing into the fighting compartment, flames erupted from the vehicle as it was effectively gutted in an instant. The anti-gravity drive sputtered and failed, sending the vehicle crashing to the ground.

"Target destroyed." Drayal announced as he began to scan for more targets and quickly found a group of infantry leapfrogging from cover to cover. Today, he was in the alien hunting business and business was jumping today. He swung the chin-mounted plasma cannon around and pulled the trigger.

* * *

Fifteen kilometers behind the front, watching from his command center, Grand General Tiberbus Kuril, commanding officer of the 6th Expeditionary Force, scowled at the scene that he was viewing through his binoculars. The enemy dropships and gunships had come in fast and low, slipping in below their radar deck. Spirits their first clue that something was coming had been _music_ of all things and it had been in a sense enthralling and also sort of scary.

Now he was watching as the 38th Mechanized Infantry Legion, 193rd Mechanized Infantry Legion, 78th Assault Infantry Legion, and the 203rd Armored Legion had the extreme displeasure of having their mandibles kicked in by enemy air power that had solid countermeasure systems as well as what appeared to be energy shields.

"Where the hell are our fighters?! They were supposed to prevent this sort of thing!" High General Lanus Camtus, CO for the 203rd Armored Legion hissed angrily.

"We recalled them after losing the better part of a dozen to hostile anti-aircraft fire. Plus I think I am seeing plasma bolts flying, it would be suicide for our fighters to engage those gunships. They would probably win, but the losses would be severe." Kuril said with a sigh as he watched as the enemy craft unleashed a salvo of rockets from two stubby pods, explosions chained up a street. Moments later the rocket salvo was followed up with a long burst of plasma that was swept from side-to-side. Kuril winced at the sight, apparently one of the enemy's rules of war was that "there is no such thing as overkill." A salvo like that would've likely decimated anything short of a tank.

Lanus snarled out a curse. "Really? Because eighteen of my Talons have been reduced to a smoldering ruins! Those things are not cheap mind you!" He snapped.

"What I am curious about is how have they been destroying Talons with such ease?" High General Clocia Adanus of the 193rd Mechanized Infantry Division asked.

Lanus sighed deeply. "Most of the losses have been to the infantry portable anti-vehicle _laser weapons_ that they got! Although a couple were lost to some sort of plasma weapon, a guided energy bolt from the looks of things. But to be fair, the Talon's armor isn't really rated to stop something like that. The last three losses however came from the gunships and one of them had their ezero core undergo a Viper destabilization, their probably isn't enough left of that one to build an Omni-tool." he said.

"That explains quite a bit actually. Kinetic barriers do absolutely shit against lasers and if it's powerful enough, a laser can blast it's way through nearly anything." Clocia said.

"But the fact of the matter is, this is just a _colony_. We got no idea where their home world is and worse they've fought the Spirits-damned Covenant Empire and have apparently _won_. Just because of that, I am tempted to parlay just to prevent this from becoming an unmitigated disaster that results in full blown war being declared. Mainly because as powerful as our military is, after seeing how badly the fleet got mangled in orbit, I don't really like our chances of winning open war. We can likely fight them to a stand still unless they catch us off guard planetside, but in orbit it is a different story entirely." Kuril said with a sigh.

"You can't possibly be thinking of that! Turians never surrender to enemy forces!" Lanus snarled.

"Parlaying doesn't equate to surrendering, if anything it's best used for opening communications. If we can at the very least find some common ground and maybe we can work towards figuring out what the hell led us to getting into this mess and how to prevent it from happening again." Kuril said in a commanding tone.

"But it's our duty to bring these guys to heel for violating Citadel Law!" Lanus snapped.

"I've been _against_ that policy for a long time. It's easier to warn those of dangers and bring them into contact with the Citadel Races. The reason I've always been against that policy is just because of this precise situation where we wind up fighting an enemy that's more technologically advanced than we are." Kuril shot back angrily.

"They may have violated Citadel Law and do need to be brought to heel." Clocia added. "But, I can't imagine the price that we would have to pay both on the ground and in space to actually win, worse we haven't seen anything bigger than that Pocket Dreadnought that was responsible for destroying the PFS _Thresher Maw_ in orbit and we don't know if that is the biggest ship class they got. But judging from what we've seen from that documentary, I don't think it is." she added glumly.

Kuril and Lanus grunted in agreement. They both had to admit, the sheer scale of the warships that they had seen in that documentary, not to mention the levels of firepower that they had unleashed in some of those battles would have ripped something like an Expeditionary Fleet to shreds. Particularly the 2nd Battle of Harvest had been incredible, not to mention it showed just how brilliant their tactical commanders were.

"Still, I actually wonder what sort of forces the enemy actually has on world. Mainly because of this." Kuril said, tapping commands on a data slate and then flicking the display to the main holographic projector.

The view that snapped to life was a somewhat shaky recording from a soldier's helmet cam. But the shape that dominated the center was unmistakable, it's form contained sharp angles, with what appeared to be broad rotatable wings considering that they were vertical instead of horizontal, a canted twin tail, and a downright menacing looking chingun. But what was most impressive part wasn't the fact that the dropship was slowly descending atop a pillar of blue-white fire, no it was the fact that maneuvering under the dropship as it did so was six wheeled vehicle. With a muted _thump_ , something, probably magnetics engaged and securely grasped the vehicle.

Something then caught the dropship's attention for its chingun suddenly roared to life. The sound was akin to a J-230 Pincher Cannon being fired, but only in the vaguest sense of the word judging by the noise, akin to a buzzsaw it had to be a rotary weapon of some kind. A blazing stream of blue colored projectiles came blazing out from the end of the weapon as the gunship fired a sustained burst at some unseen target. There was a muted _boom_ , the sound nearly drowned out by the throaty roar that the rotary mass accelerator cannon produced as it's target was all but annihilated.

Suddenly a group of six hostiles, including one whose armor was splattered with a not so insignificant amount of blood, not to mention looked like he could stare a Turian in the face sprinted to the dropship. He was carrying a wounded soldier in a bridal carry and had a weapon of some sort slung across his back. As he watched, they scrambled into the dropship. Right behind them came several more soldiers, no not soldiers _police officers_ that were equipped with solid looking armor and heavy weaponry, one of them had a ballistic shield with a heavy pistol. As they watched gunfire connected with the ballistic shield and while it was no kinetic barrier, the angle it was presented at meant that the rounds struggled to punch through the material.

The moment the last man was aboard however, the dropship increased power and the engines roared. The ungainly craft with it's underslung cargo raced into the air, pivoting as it did so and in the process of doing that revealing something emblazoned proudly on the side of the dropship, it was in the alien language but the translation program had taken care of that problem, the word said ARMY.

"This means that this wasn't main enemy force. Judging by what we've seen, the force we primarily fought today was a combination of police and what I wager is a defense militia. Which considering the discipline we've seen fits, but the biggest question would be is where would they set up?" Lanus said and Kuril nodded.

"I would hedge my bets about them being about here, near this canyon. It would make flanking attacks difficult because of the terrain, not to mention the gentle sloping hills would provide lot's of places to go hull down and if you build a trench system their it'll be pretty damn hard. No single legion could conquer that place by itself." Clocia said pulling up the topographical maps they had acquired from the ships in orbit and highlighting a broad valley with gently sloping hills, sporadic clusters of trees, and notably high cliffs.

Kuril grunted in approval as he watched the rapidly retreating enemy craft, they had completed their mission with a level of efficiency that would've impressed most Turian Air Assault Legions and were now heading home.

"I want casualty reports from all Legions by," Kuril checked the time on his Omni. "by 1900 hours and for all Legion generals to attend a strategy meeting at 0700." he ordered firmly. Kuril knew that he didn't know enough about the scale of enemy forces, nothing that a little bit of recon could fix but he didn't know what sort of shape his own forces were in and at the very least a parlay would be a long ways towards achieving peace. Hopefully without having a series of blood baths for both sides before it could be achieved, at least that's what he wanted, but the events that would end in this conflict ending was something that only the Spirits themselves knew how it was going to play out.

* * *

 **Codex entry** **Misriah Armories M860 Scorpion Main Battle Tank:** _The last units were retired from frontline UNSCDF service in the year 2582 just two years after the introduction of the newer Liger after twenty-five years of service. The tank is well renowned for being the last member of the Scorpion Tank Family, the overall layout is similar to previous generations of Scorpion although the turret had been moved forward and considerably enlarged with it's crew compartment situated underneath the turret and the M860 was the last model of UNSCDF MBT to use a propellant based main gun. Today however it serves as the primary backbone of the severely limited Colonial Defense Forces Armored Forces. However these tanks proved to be inadequate against Turian Main Battle Tanks as well as Super-Heavies during the Shanxi Affair._


	6. The Pillar of Autumn

**A/N: So I bet you've all been waiting for this moment. The introduction of the UNSCDFS** _ **Pillar of Autumn II**_ **and her battle group, hopefully I can do the old Flight-II** _ **Autumn**_ **class Heavy Cruiser justice.**

 **If you don't want to read all of the reviews just go down to the line break below.**

 **Amogthelast: Hmmm, there's an idea.**

 **Apple: It's not a nerf, that's the beauty of it. You see sure weight plays a big role in effectiveness against targets but so does velocity. 600-tons going 30,000 meters per second (or 30-kilometers per second) is only creating 2.7e+14 (or 270,000,005,200,000) joules of energy on impact, convert joules to tons of tnt wherein 1-ton of TNT equals 4,184,000,000-joules of energy. Converting 2.7e+14 joules results in 64,531.55 tons of TNT or 64.53-kilotons, which considering the yield of stuff like the HAVOK-nuclear weapon in canon isn't very impressive. The new model of Light-Coil MAC gun that integrates Mass Effect, sure it doesn't throw as heavy a slug, but 70-metric ton projectile moving at 22,000-kilometers per second (or 220,000-meters per second) gives you 1.694e+19 (or 16,939,999,999,991,278,000) joules which translating to tons of TNT results in 4,048,757,170.17 tons of TNT or 4.05-gigatons of TNT. Granted this is only for space actions, orbital bombardments use heavier munitions that are going much slower, another bonus for smaller rounds is more ammunition can be carried. As for Mass Effect tech being dead-end, for the most part it has but the reason it's more advanced is thanks to better mass accelerator design, mainly in the fact that the electromagnetic rails used are more powerful to the point that they are using twisting rails and some are adding magnetic coils to the design to get more power, heavier shells also plays a role in that regard.**

 **Soldier Puppy: It's not really curb-stomp battle, the actual term for the situation that the Turians have been hit with twice in a row is called a Pyrrhic Victory.**

 **Guest1: Not that long really for UNSCDF ships to arrive once they get underway but the biggest pain will be getting a counter-force together. Also thing is the** _ **Infinity**_ **class well, some of its variants have been phased out of service. The most common variants of the** _ **Infinity**_ **class that are still in service in the UNSCDF Navy are Fleet Support Ships, Assault Ships, and Artillery Ships.**

 **Guest2: I didn't, the UNSC has plasma weapons, energy shields, and they are even beginning to explore lightmass technology. The reason you think we've been following the UNSC is because we haven't we've been following for the most part what is in essence Shanxi's National Guard.**

 **Guest3: The Turians unlike the Covenant are actually careful about handling Civilians. Plus their are bunkers in the city that are currently holding the majority of the remaining civilians who are in the city. Sure there was some civilian casualties but in a big battle like this, it was bound to happen.**

 **Guest4: Don't worry, Master Chief will be appearing in the story, just not during the Shanxi Arc but he'll show up during the Eden Prime Arc.**

 **Guest5: What you call wank, I like to call balancing mainly because in canon the Citadel Races would get absolutely ROFLstomped by the UNSCDF particularly Post-Human-Covenant War UNSCDF.**

 **Banna: I'll answer point two first since it's easier. *Points up to the 500kw Plasma Cannon slung underneath the chin of a G100 Emu Gunship hovering above me* and you say I've nerfed the UNSCDF? Ha! I haven't we've been dealing with what is basically Shanxi's National Guard for the most part and the UNSCDF proper has only just shown up. Plus I'll tell you right now, Mass isn't everything. Sure it plays a big role, but as I said in my answer to Apple's post, velocity plays a gigantic role as well, even more so than mass. As for Destiny Ascension, yes, she did nearly bankrupt the Asari but not just because of her ezero cores but also because she was designed to fight Covenant Empire Warships and thus has the heaviest Mass Acceleration Cannons ever designed, built, and installed on a Citadel Warship, throw in her non-conformal Kinetic Barriers, and armor that's worth a damn and you got a good reason as to why she's so expensive. As for UNSCDF ships firing in seconds with a larger round, those** _ **aren't**_ **ships buddy those are Orbital Defense Platforms that are powered by planet based fusion generators at least the Human-Covenant War era ones, I am sorry but that isn't happening unless ODPs make an appearance, which they will but not for a while.**

 **Also Bioware and 343i please keep the attack dogs, also known as lawyers firmly muzzled and leashed.**

* * *

 **0300 Hours, February 6th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Themlock Star System, Themlock Two, Planet Deuter**

 **Onboard UNSCDFS** _ **Pillar of Autumn**_ **docked at Liberty Shipyards**

Liberty Shipyards wasn't that expansive of an affair. It couldn't hope to hold a candle to the massive, sprawling naval yards over Reach, Earth, Mars, and Skopje among others; however it was still fairly impressive. The yards contained two slipways capable of having a ship up to the size of new _Revenge_ class Battlecruiser to be built as well as several smaller slipways capable of handling the much smaller ships up to the _Daring_ class Heavy Destroyer. Also scattered about was several dry docks for ships that needed repairs as well as several docking bays for the ships that called Liberty home. Also sitting in geosynchronous orbit in a formation to cover the shipyards and the planet was no less than twenty _Cairo_ class Semi-Mobile Orbital Defense Platforms, each one armed with enough firepower to annihilate almost any possible warship that could be hostile.

Most of these docking bays however were empty, for Liberty Shipyards wasn't a major naval base. The station was home to exactly _one_ battlegroup and not the most powerful one either, for the flagship was an old warhorse that had been put out to pasture but not yet retired. Her massive vaguely brick-shaped frame loomed over all of the other docked ships that were in their docking bays, the thick Titanium-C3 Battleplate that the ship had for armor despite the major overhaul the ship had received fifteen years ago was pitted from micrometeorite impacts, the numerous fusion and repulsor drive cones that dotted her stern were blackened from their long and extensive use over the ship's many years in service, the same was true for the ship's braking thrusters forward, overall it gave the ship a worn out appearance.

But the ship while it appeared to be worn out it was anything _but_ worn out, her huge frame still bore weapons of war. The ship's tall prow was marked with the two-meter diameter muzzle of the massively powerful Heavy-Coil Mass Effect Field Enhanced Magnetic Accelerator Cannon which was capable of throwing a 125-metric ton projectile at 22,000-km/s, situated below the muzzle of the MEFMAC was what appeared to be a small titanium dome which housed the ship's lone but mighty energy projector, under the ship's overhanging prow was a menacing looking triple gun turret and it wasn't the only one either, for their was eight additional turrets scattered across the ship's dorsal side as well as port and starboard each of the large menacing gun barrels was a powerful plasma coilgun, also quite visible on the ship's port and starboard flanks facing forward were the muzzles to the ship's four heavy Mass Acceleration Cannons capable of throwing a 3-metric ton projectile at 15,000 km/s, in addition to all of that was the fact that she was also armed with four forward torpedo tubes, two hundred thirty oversized Inferno Missile Pods each containing eighty missiles, forty-eight pulse lasers, thirty-two twin 70mm rotary mass accelerator CIWS, and four Plasma Torpedo Silos, while her aerospace compliment contained thirty-six F/A-320 Claymore Multirole Fighters, twenty-four Wallaby UCAVs, four D105-TCE Osprey Dropships, twelve D88H-TC Pelican Dropships, and eight G88H-TC Pelican Gunships.

This ship was a proud member of the _Autumn_ class of Heavy Cruiser, lead ship of her class, the _Autumn_ class had the element zero refit making her a massive 1,475-meters in length. Making her a full fifty meters longer than _Autumn_ class Heavy Cruisers that didn't have the ezero refit. The ship's name stood proudly emblazoned upon it's bow in blocky font that was dark grey font outline in black that contrast nicely with the ship's pearlescent white and Star Command Blue paint-scheme: _Pillar of Autumn_.

The _Autumn_ 's Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Commander Gabra Abebe Barnabas jogged briskly into the ship's main engine room from the number two reactor maintenance hatchway. Gabra was about forty-eight years old and of stocky build, it was his job to make sure that everything on the seventy-year old warship was running smoothly. But there was always _something_ that needed fixing on his old and tired ship. This time it had been the fusion igniter coil for one of the D-He3 Fusion Reactors as the stupid thing had burned out while trying to ignite the fusion reaction.

Wiping his hands on a rag he went to the compartment's main ship intercom and punched in the command for the bridge. "Bridge, Engineering." Barnabas said, his voice colored by a thick Emerald Cove accent.

" _Bridge, aye. What is it, Lieutenant Commander?_ " Commodore Tegwen Reuben replied.

"Reactor two is fixed, the igniter coil burned out when we tried to ignite the reactor. Just to be safe however we replaced the igniter coil for reactors one and three as well. We just started the charging process for the igniter coils and should be ready to go for a reactor ignition attempt in four hours, sir." Barnabas said.

" _Good, how's the eezo core?_ " Reuben asked.

"Purring away like a kitten, sir." Barnabas replied.

" _Good to hear, I want us to be under way in six and half hours._ " Reuben said before cutting the connection.

Barnabas sighed, the _Pillar of Autumn_ while a nice ship. The one thing that always caused him the most headaches on this old girl was her cankerous reactors. But surprisingly nothing else really caused him any problems, if _Autumn_ was human. He would have to say that she was in okay health but would be a little worried about her heart. Made sense he supposed, the _Autumn_ was an old ship after all.

Regardless it was now his job to make sure that the old Heavy Cruiser was ready to go to war. That would be difficult to do, mainly because he wasn't sure about the capabilities of these aliens that had taken Shanxi. But it wasn't his job to think about such things as he was just a mere engineer. But considering the durability of the _Autumn_ 's armor belt he was confident that they could take them. Then again he knew nothing of the aliens and their capabilities. But as long as his reactors functioned without problems, he was a happy man.

* * *

 **0310 Hours, February 6th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Themlock Star System, Themlock Two, Planet Deuter**

 **Onboard UNSCDFS** _ **Pillar of Autumn**_ **docked at Liberty Shipyards**

If things were hectic in main engineering onboard the _Pillar of Autumn_ , her bridge was a scene of barely controlled chaos. Commodore Tegwen Reuben sat in the center of this chaos directing the bridge crew, he hated this situation. Absolutely nothing was known about their enemy, he needed that to be fixed pronto so he could properly prepare his crew and ship for what lay ahead.

"How is the munition provisioning proceeding, Velvet? Are we on schedule." Reuben barked harshly. It had been bad luck really, the _Autumn_ had been undergoing a substantial refit after busting a pirate base and it's accompanying fleet thanks to a tip from a Belt Alliance ship that had stumbled across it. They had expended a fair amount of ordinance and fuel plus had suffered minor damage while engaging the base to down it's shields and destroy it's defenses so they could send the Marines aboard.

The holotank warmed and the angelic form of Velvet, the _Autumn_ 's "Smart" A.I. materialized. "Yes sir, we are ahead of schedule in fact. Best guess for estimates is that we'll only need, barring any delays roughly four more hours for us to receive our full complement of ordinance for all shipboard weapons as well as our aerospace compliment. Biggest problem with us getting underway is our reactor, that thing goes cold it tends to want to stay cold." Velvet said, fingering her knee length dress.

Reuben grumped, the _Autumn_ 's reactor set when it was new when the ship was overhauled in 2590 was a trio of top of the line Siemens-Westinghouse Power Generation Mark XXXL D-He3 Fusion Reactors that used a laser-induced optical slurry chilled to near absolute zero and overlapping magnetic fields combined with artificial gravity generators adding in further compression, allowing output to be temporally boosted to around four hundred percent for short periods. Now those same reactors were stubborn and he hated having his ship's reactors go cold because they tended to stay that way. They usually needed coaxing to come back to life, which made sense, those reactors were just over forty years old and thus age was starting to get to them.

"Great, anything else I should know?" Reuben asked.

"Sir, we're picking up a QEC transmission from the _Samuel B. Roberts_!" A comms tech shouted, her eyes wide.

"Authenticate it right this goddamned instant! I am heading down to the QEC, XO you have the bridge!" Reuben barked before standing up out of his chair and striding aft to the QEC room, it had not been included in the _Autumn_ 's original design. But had been added in an overhaul in the 2560s and thus the compartment was rather cramped with room for maybe three people standing. Regardless, it got the job done.

" _Sir, we got confirmation. The transmission is indeed from the_ Samuel B. Roberts _, she was assigned to the Shanxi Defense Fleet. Which means that they'll likely have intelligence on our enemy for us._ " Velvet said through the ship's intercom system.

"Damn good to hear Velvet, put the transmission through." Reuben ordered.

The QEC flickered into life and then a haggard looking young man came into existence. His uniform was dirty and wrinkled, with noticeable sweat stains as well as splatters of blood and oil. If anything, the man looked like he had just been through hell. Rueben noticed that the man had First Lieutenant bars, which raised the question of why the hell a First Lieutenant was commanding an _Epee_ class Light Frigate? The man came to attention and saluted, it was a little sloppy but considering how ragged he had probably been run, it was only natural. Not only that, instead of the crisp and perfect image that was normal of QEC transmissions, instead it was distorted with lots of interference.

" _Lieutenant Steven Hackett, acting CO of the_ Samuel B. Roberts _reporting, sir._ " He said.

"As you were Lieutenant Hackett, where's Lieutenant Commander Rasam?" Reuben said, returning the salute.

" _Dead, sir, along with a sizeable percentage of my ship's crew. It's been rough going, don't be surprised if this transmission cuts out midpacket. We had to jury rig the hell out of it just to setup this transmission and thus sending a traditional report is out of the question._ " Hackett reported, relaxing somewhat.

Well that explained all the interference that this transmission had received. It really told just how badly damaged the _Samuel B. Roberts_ was and it gave him an inkling of what to expect in terms of the condition of the Shanxi Defense Force. "What's the status of the Shanxi Defense Force Lieutenant?" Reuben asked.

" _Gone sir. With the exception of the_ Samuel B. Roberts _, all UNSC Navy warships have been destroyed, the_ So Much for Subtlety _and_ Running Riot _were lost with all hands with the other ships having varying casualty rates among there crews._ Samuel B. Roberts _sustained heavy damage during the battle and out of our eight hundred strong crew, close to two hundred eighty were killed in action with another three hundred wounded in some way. In exchange, out of two hundred twenty enemy ships, one hundred seventy-nine were either destroyed or mission-killed. The only bright spot in this mess is that the enemy isn't like the Covenant Empire, they weren't destroying the life pods which is good._ " Hackett replied crisply.

Goddamnit, six ships and thousands of lives lost already. Throw in the lives lost onboard the UNSCDFS _London_ and the number of lives lost was substantial, several thousand already. Not to mention the civilian casualties that had likely been inflicted on the remaining population that was still on Shanxi. But the scary part was just _how_ many ships had attacked Shanxi and how many had been destroyed or mission-killed was lopsided in the extreme. It was weird, but then again, they weren't destroying the lifepods that had launched which meant that this wasn't a genocidal crusade but was going to be a legitimate war between parties over something although the question that Reuben had was why?

"Right, so what do we know about these alien bastards?" Reuben asked.

" _A substantial amount we don't know who they are or what they want. But we managed to get detailed scans of their ships, they use element zero for propulsion but they do have screw pinch fusion reactors of a similar design to those used by the Covenant probably for backup power. Hull plating seems to be a combination of ablative composites that are pretty damn dense and durable, a titanium alloy that's okay but not the best, and a whipple shield with small gaps between the armor slabs probably for additional protection. Overall, it'll probably stop a couple of plasma cannon shots before failing but a plasma torpedo or particle cannon round will just laugh at that armor-plating._ " Hackett said shaking his head.

Reuben allowed his lips to twitch upwards almost imperceptibly at that statement, the enemy ships were nowhere near being as durable as his own. That armor while solid, was more inclined towards defeating mass acceleration rounds rather than plasma. Which struck him as a little strange, but he wasn't complaining about it. If anything it meant his fleet would have an advantage thanks to their particle cannons, plasma cannons, and plasma torpedoes. It made him feel much better mainly because he knew that their armor wasn't anywhere near his own ship's armor.

"What do these bastards use for weaponry?" Reuben asked sharply.

" _That's the thing sir. Enemy weapons was predominantly Mass Accelerators and torpedoes similar in performance to our Nike torpedoes although they are not equipped with nuclear warheads, they are equipped with some sort of ME warhead or what can be best described as a singularity warhead. Point-defense however they use sustained beam lasers, not pulse lasers but there was no sign of CIWS whatsoever. However, those mass accelerators had a much higher rate of fire and at range will be able to saturate a battlespace with shells._ " Hackett said shrugging.

Reuben bit back a curse, the shots had to be much weaker to have a higher rate of fire but that was quite a bad thing. If they used that smartly they could severely hamper his ship's maneuverability and the maneuverability of the battle group, that was bad. On the other hand, mass accelerator shells, their armor and shields could take that type of beating for a while before failing. The problem would be the sheer number of shells that were going to be thrown at them which wasn't good in the slightest, the shielding and armor-plating was tough yes, but it wasn't invincible.

"Great, anything else?" Reuben asked bitterly.

" _I am afraid so sir. The hostile warships can practically fly rings around ours thanks to their lower overall mass and that's before you factor in the mass-altering capabilities that their ezero cores provide. But they can't take a hit worth a damn if you crack their shields which for most of their ships is surprisingly pretty easily. Once you get into ships about a kilometer in length though, that's when they can take a hit from a MAC and walk it off. Although they tend to struggle with energy projectors, sir._ " Hackett said

Reuben nodded in response. _Well how about that._ He thought, this was damn good news. It meant a number of things, mainly that any of these alien warships that were smaller than one of their capitals would get one-shotted by a MAC, but on the flipside they were far more maneuverable which could be a problem for the _Pillar of Autumn_ considering she had a normal mass of over ten million metric tons and even with the ezero core reducing her mass at her lightest she only weighed about seven million metric tons and thus wasn't the most maneuverable thing around. Not to mention energy projectors could slice through those shields with ease. Still, one thing was bugging him, if they used predominantly element zero, then the kinetic barriers that they had for their shielding should stop an energy projector shot, but it couldn't. That didn't make any sense. "I am surprised that their shielding can't stop energy projectors."

" _Sir, with respect. Starman, has come up with a fairly good reason why there kinetic barriers are useless against energy projectors. It's a plasma and thus has mass true, but it's also going damn near the speed of light and it's practically needle thin, not to mention it's extremely hot. The shields can stop an energy projector blast, but considering that they conform to the hull of the ship, the hull-plating and armor underneath tends to flash vaporize or at the very least flash boil away which thus destroys the emitters for the kinetic barriers and causes the shield to drop resulting in the remaining plasma in the shot gutting the ship. Sadly, the effect isn't as pronounced with plasma railguns or hardlight cannons but it's their._ " Hackett said.

Reuben hummed in thought, most of his ships in battle group did have energy weapons of some description. In fact, with the exception of the _Autumn_ and the _White Plains_ which had plasma railguns and Particle Beam Cannons respectively instead of Particle Pulse Cannons for secondary battery guns, plus the six _Arabia_ class Heavy Frigates, the four _Daring_ class Heavy Destroyers, the lone _Hannibal_ class Light Carrier, as well as the _Autumn_ were all equipped with plasma torpedo silos and at least one Energy Projector.

"What about fighter doctrine?" Reuben asked.

" _No dedicated carriers, but they still had a lot of fighters. None of them however were rigged for anti-ship work, in fact just by looking at the configuration I'd say that they are predominantly used for anti-fighter work. Didn't see any bombers to speak of now that I think about it, sir._ " Hackett replied.

"So negligible anti-ship capabilities?"

" _Not entirely sure sir. They could put a torpedo on it but that would be one clunky as hell jury-rig. But it's possible, however it's entirely possible that they have an exo capable strike-craft but we just haven't seen them yet. As it stands sir, it'll likely take weeks, if not months for the_ Roberts _to be anywhere close to fighting shape. Bastards did a severe number on her._ " Hackett said, dropping his head.

Damn, well that was a combination of good news and bad news. Good news was that fighters weren't meant to be strike craft which while it wasn't a bad thing the fact that they hadn't seen enemy bombers yet meant that it was still an unknown because they had no idea about their capabilities and the one thing that could screw over a battle plan faster than you could say "oh fuck my life" was an unknown. In fact the only thing that could screw over a battle plan quicker than an unknown was usually taunting Murphy.

"Understood, Lieutenant. This information is incredibly useful and will come in handy for the planning the battle, I am going to see about making sure you get a promotion out of this." Reuben said firmly.

" _Thank you sir. I wish that the_ Roberts _could be apart of the counteroffensive but she needs a full yard and probably a couple of months to get back into fighting trim._ " Hackett replied, suddenly there was a loud _bang_ from somewhere behind the ell-tee, the image flickered noticeably, a wave of something akin to static washing over the holographic image. The Lieutenant cursed creatively under his breath as the image stabilized.

"When will the _Roberts_ be able to arrive at Liberty Shipyards?"

" _Four days time, plus or minus a couple of hours._ " Hackett replied quickly.

"Alright, thank you Lieutenant. Dismissed." Reuben said and Hackett came to attention once more and then cut the signal. The holographic image dissolved and cut out. Sighing Reuben turned and walked out of the compartment, heading back to the bridge.

It never got any easier dealing with fellow men and women dying in combat. More so when you couldn't do a thing about it, such was the nature of war. Regardless the sooner that the _Autumn_ and her battle group could get to Shanxi, the sooner they would be able to achieve orbital superiority and would be able to land much needed reinforcements for the ground-pounders. The big question though is that would the aliens reinforce their position before the _Autumn_ and her battle group arrived?

To be frank, that was the scary part; if the enemy received reinforcements while they were engaged as fleets became intermingled. At that point it would be difficult to effect a retreat and then things could get rather hairy.

He strood back onto the bridge. "Commodore on the bridge!" someone barked and the bustle of the bridge died down.

"As you were." Reuben said before returning his chair as he did so, he issued more orders. "Velvet, I want a strategy meeting with the _Autumn_ 's department heads in thirty minutes."

"Aye sir. Should I alert the other COs?" Velvet asked.

"Not at the moment, no." Reuben said stiffly as he thought about the upcoming meeting.

"As you wish sir."

* * *

 **0908 Hours, February 6th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Themlock Star System, Themlock Two, Planet Deuter**

 **Onboard UNSCDFS** _ **Pillar of Autumn**_ **docked at Liberty Shipyards**

"All umbilicals retracted and detaching physical docking clamps now." The helmsman said as the _Autumn_ shuddered as the massive docking clamps let go of the massive Cruiser.

"Cast off torsion anchors." Reuben ordered sharply.

"Signalling Liberty Shipyard ATC, requesting permission to cast off Torsion anchors, aye." The helmsman said, tapping out the request quickly and efficiently.

A moment later the console beeped. "Permission received, deactivating Torsion anchors." The helmsman said, tapping commands and a moment later with the barest hint of a shudder, the Torsion anchors that supplemented the massive Magclamps disengaged. "Anchors disengaged."

"Good, take us out." Reuben ordered. "Five second reverse burn."

"Taking us out, five second reverse burn, aye sir." The helmsman said tapping in commands a subtle rumble ran through the _Autumn_. Chemical thrusters fired in a long sustained burst and slowly almost imperceptibly at first but picking up in pace. The great warship gilded silently out of her berth with the ease of a championship boxer striding to the ring for a fight.

"Sir, we've cleared the slip and we're free to maneuver." The helmsman said.

Reuben grinned, time to let the dogs of war loose. "Bring us about to course 090, inclination 015, engines ahead standard." he ordered.

"Bring us about to course 090, inclination 015, engines ahead standard, aye!"

The _Autumn_ 's engines rumbled and her drive cones ignited propelling the Heavy Cruiser forward while her battle group formed up around her. The escorting destroyers were in close formation with the frigates somewhat farther out in a larger circle at the heart of these two concentric circles was the Cruiser and the Carrier.

A low deep humming sound joined the hearty rumble of the _Autumn_ 's reactors and the quiet chirping and beeping of her computers. The sound was distinctive and everyone knew what it was, the Heavy Cruiser's slipspace drive charging so that through Quantum Mechanics it could squeeze a warship weighing several million metric tons into Slipstream Space.

"All ships in formation, sir." Velvet said as another holotank came to life. "Course plotted, ready to jump into slipspace on your command."

Reuben drew in a deep breath, time to move out. "All ships jump!"

"Jumping the fleet, aye sir." Velvet replied and the deep hum of the slipspace drive was replaced with a deep thrumming sound and with the briefest flashes of light, a dark blue swirling portal came into existence as the slipspace drive opened a portal into the eleven dimensions of slipspace. Other such portals snapped into existence as the drives for the other UNSC warships fired, drive cones flashed and the ships vanished into slipspace, the ruptures closing seamlessly behind them.

"Jump initiated, estimated time of arrival 0521 hours, February 11th, 2625 Military Calendar." Velvet said.

"I can't think of a better way to start the weekend, then smashing an alien force to pieces. Right sir?" The _Autumn_ 's nominal CO and the battlegroup's XO, Captain Aida Russi said in her peckish Italian accent.

"No Captain, we're going to war against an alien race we barely know anything about. We may hold the majority of the advantages but we must not underestimate the enemy. That's a mistake we can't afford to make, how many battles did the Covenant lose during the Great War because they got over confident? I can name six or seven battles right off the top of head where that happened." Reuben said sharply.

Russi sighed. "I understand sir. It's just why do our First Contacts always end in disaster? I mean I am all for a good fight, particularly when I know what they want. Not in this case, we don't know why they are fighting us or what their reasons are." she said.

 _Exactly what I was thinking Captain._ Reuben thought before answering. "Agreed Captain, I feel the exact same way. We got no idea why they are fighting us, but as for their reasons it doesn't matter. As far as I can tell this was a completely unprovoked attack on a planet that's a member of the United Earth Government which is a sovereign nation. It will not stand." he said sharply.

"Yes sir." Russi replied.

* * *

 **1100 Hours, February 6th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Onboard UNSCDF** _ **Pillar of Autumn II**_ **in slipspace**

 **Enroute to Shanxi**

The MA7 Plasma Rifle unleashed a crackling roar as it discharged, bolts of crackling indigo energy streaked downrange, hammering the target with tear drop shaped energy pulses. To Private Ben Fletcher, United Nations Marine Corps, the kick of the weapon was firm against his shoulder.

He fired another burst of plasma and then the spent energy cell ejected automatically and clattered to the ground. Sighing he grabbed another energy cell off the bench, slotted it into the rifle and the ammunition counter automatically reset from 00 to 350.

The rifle came back up and he sighted down the iron sight and pulled the trigger. Bolts of indigo fire roared from the rifle and struck the target. He sighed, the rifle was solid but he wasn't sure if he could end another life with it. Plasma weapons inflicted horrific wounds that were extremely painful against it's target and the armor needed to be specially designed to stop it, the UNSC had learned that lesson the hard way during the Human-Covenant War.

"You ready to kick some ass Private?" someone asked behind him.

He safed the rifle and then whirled around, coming to attention. "Sir!" he barked. Sure enough, there was his fireteam leader, Corporal Gert Brandt. "Yes sir," he finished.

Gert merely quirked an eyebrow in response. "You positive?" he asked.

Ben sighed in response. "Not really sir. I am jittery as hell, I mean it's my first ever combat deployment. I wasn't here for the deployment against the pirate base." he said.

Gert nodded. "I get that, your first combat deployment is never easy. But at least our chances of survival is significantly higher than if we were to be fighting the a San'Shyuum Warlord or one of the remnant Covenant factions." he said.

"Just hard, you know. I've been coming down to the range for hours, trying to improve my reaction times but I've plateaued and can't get it any faster." Ben replied, that is what he had been doing for the past thirty minutes, reaction drills.

"I get that it's hard improving, but we all have our limits. That said, sometimes it's better to trust your instincts and to react without thought. Particularly during a firefight, because sometimes there is no time to think just act and often your instincts know what the best move is." Gert replied.

Ben thought about that, honestly whenever he was doing Wargames with his fireteam and something surprised them. His reaction times were always faster than what he managed during his reaction drills.

"I guess, but it's just those are simulations not the real thing. Nothing can get you ready for the real thing even if the simulations are damn close to the real thing." Ben replied thoughtfully.

Gert couldn't help but nod at that, the Wargame sims were excellent for simulating a battlefield and that they could change in an instant. But there was some events on the battlefield that occurred that couldn't be easily simulated, not to mention it didn't prepare you for _every_ possibility just some of them. Such was the nature of war, it was unpredictable and being able to adopt to the fields of war as they changed was vital skill to have on the battlefield.

"I guess the biggest thing that's worrying me is that we know _nothing_ about the enemy ground forces. We don't know what they use for weaponry, vehicles, tactics _nothing_ , we're going in blind. At least with the San'Shyuum Warlords we know what were going to be up against, Ghosts, Specters, Banshees, Wraiths, maybe even the occasional Shadow. Not so with these aliens, it's got me nervous ya know?" Ben said in a nervous tone.

Gert laughed bitterly. "I understand that feeling, we got just about shit for intelligence. Apart from the fact that we should expect our opponents to be using Mass Effect? We got nothing on what they have, I mean we should expect the standard infantry weapons sure but what do they got for vehicles and air support? We just _don't_ know." he said.

Their it was out in open, the intelligence that they had on the enemy ground forces was shit. It was one thing to drop into hell when you what to expect in said hell but it was another thing to do so without any intelligence at all. It would make the hell that you were dropping into much worse and the fight would be a slow methodical grind perhaps a damn near unwinnable grind.

Thus, the Marines that the _Autumn_ and her battlegroup were carrying all felt the same way about there upcoming deployment. Nervous about what they were going to face when they got planetside on Shanxi and they weren't the only ones either who were fretting about this. The same was true for the compliment of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, aerospace fighter pilots, dropship, and gunship pilots. But for a select group onboard the _Autumn_ , they weren't worried if anything they were eager for the upcoming action.

* * *

 **1130 Hours, February 6th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Onboard UNSCDF** _ **Pillar of Autumn II**_ **in slipspace**

 **Enroute to Shanxi**

War Game simulation Jericho VII-2535A, it was often used by ODST Squads as something to provide a moderately challenging but stress relieving exercise. A variant of the simulation however was vastly more popular with the Spartans for it provided something of an interesting challenge.

Thus the five of the six Spartan-Vs of Fireteam Moose carefully advanced through the underbrush to a short stonewall, all of them loaded for Gúta with the new weapons that the Spartan Branch was just beginning to receive. Suddenly the lead Spartan froze and held up a clenched fist.

" _Contact, Moose Lead._ " Moose Two said over the comms.

"Roger Moose Two, spread out with half meter intervals on my mark we engage." Moose Lead said and status lights winked back at him in response.

The Spartans carefully crept up to the stoneworks, their motion trackers painted just a mass of hostiles their was at least four hundred identifiable hostiles, mostly infantry but several vehicles as well. But they needed target confirmation first, something that while the Promethean Vision function in their visors could confirm. Their training told them that even the best maintained pieces of equipment could fail unexpectedly and that failure usually occurred at the time when you needed it the most. With that in mind, one of the oldest and simplest electronic devices in UNSC inventory: the fiber optic probe.

With careful movements, Moose Lead first plugged the device into the back of his helmet and then worked the device up the stone wall. The video feed showed a broad valley with a meandering river snaking through it. Small stones and the occasional boulder dotted the landscape leading up to the stone wall and encamped along the banks of the river as far as he could see was Grunts and Brutes.

A horde of enemy warriors clad in armor of various colors and armed with weapons with dull colors and shining chrome. They were all armed with a mixture of plasma rifles, needlers, bolt pistols, spikers, dart guns, Brute shots, what's more their was also four stationary heavy plasma cannons and five Goblin Combat Walkers. Both of _those_ could be a problem thanks to their hefty firepower.

One other problem, there was _at least_ a thousand of the bastards. This operation had to go off perfectly so that Fireteam Sorcerer could slip through the confusion and give the next enemy landing ship the absolute surprise of its life in the form of a thirty-five megaton yield antimatter bomb.

Moose Lead quickly formulated a plan that would sow confusion and terror into the enemy ranks while also handily annihilating their heavy weapon and vehicle support. "Moose Five, I want you to take the pulse launcher and knock out those stationary guns and walkers. The rest of us are on crowd control. Initiate on my mark." he ordered.

Status lights winked in response.

Moose Lead allowed himself a smile. This was going to be _fun_.

"Mark!" Moose Lead said.

Moose Five leaped to the top of the two and half meter stonewall with incredible ease. Her augmentations as well as the strength enhancement and reactive circuits in the Mjolnir Gen3 Mark XII Powered Assault Armor that she wore making such a jump child's play. The Spartan landed atop the stone works with hardly a sound, already in motion she hefted the pulse launcher and within seven seconds no less than nine shots flew from the weapon. She dropped the launcher and leaped off the wall, hitting the ground like a cat, she tucked into a forward roll and came up sprinting back towards the fallback point.

The pulse shots shrieked through the air, the first Goblin hit had the front of the main body crumple inwards as the Armor-Piercing Pulse Missile plowed through the heavy-duty armor plating like a lawn dart through soggy rice paper. An instant latter the missile exploded and the entire front end of the main body of the Grunt-shaped walker blew itself apart in a cataclysmic detonation, a shrapnel flying in all directions as the war machine was tossed backwards off its feet as if it weighs nothing. The ground shook with it's impact and the wails of surprised and alarmed aliens welled up in response.

Then one of the stationary guns got hit. The explosion shattered the entire assembly like glass and the warhead unleashed submunitions which ripped into the unfortunate aliens that hadn't been killed by the shrapnel. Dozens of aliens were blown apart, blood and gore erupting from numerous bodies as the blasts ripped them to shreds.

Moose Lead's boots had just hit the top of the stone works as the last Goblin blew up, moments later with a blinding blue-white flash it's reactor went critical. The ferocious blast annihilated _everything_ with fifty meters, it simply vaporized dissolving from sight in an instant. Wails of agony rose upwards from the hostiles as they suffered from injuries ranging from impalement to severe burns.

As one the Spartans opened fire, their BR150SR Battle Rifles spitting hardlight projectiles at the tune of seven hundred rounds per minute. Streaks of blue light raced away from their weapons and ripped into the aliens with devastating effect. Chunks of flesh and armor were brutally ripped away, gouts of flame erupted as rounds penetrated the methane tanks of the Grunts. Tossing mutilated alien bodies into the air in random directions and intervals. The Brutes didn't fair that much better, but instead of one three shots at most being required to drop them, the massive bipedal gorillas having their shields and armor ripped apart but the fuckers could absorb almost a metric ass ton of fire before dropping.

Countless aliens were slaughtered before they realized where the attack was coming from and then they charged _en mass_. The ground shaking as they rushed the Spartan's position, barking and snarling their weapons firing. Bolts of orange, green, blue as well as yellow spikes and glassy purple darts sliced through the air. Their sheer numbers causing the ground to shake as they came like a never-ending tide.

As one the four Spartans on crowd control fired micro-missiles, six lethal fusion enhanced warheads each with enough power to blow a Warthog apart leaped clear from the shoulder mounted launchers on each Spartan. They streaked into the horde of on rushing hostiles and exploded, the entirety of the forward ranks of the alien onslaught simply vanished as if they were leaves getting blown away in a hurricane.

Yet the aliens still surged forward, hundreds possibly still over a thousand alien throats baying for the Spartan's blood. Blood that wouldn't be shed easily even with their incredible numbers.

Moose Lead sidestepped as a 60mm grenade from a Brute Shot streaked towards him. The grenade detonating behind him, he lined up the Chieftain responsible for the shot and fired a sustained burst. The alien hit the ground shrieking in agony it's armor punctured and holed in numerous locations blood so hot that it was steaming sprayed from the wounds.

Superheated metal spikes, glowing yellow-white rods, and purple needles bounced and sparkled off the armor of the Spartans. Their shields rippling to life with golden energy conforming to their sleek yet angular armor.

With a blinding flash of orange, a charged bolt shot round shrieked towards the Angels of Death. The one that the shot was targeting simply ducked, continuing to fire, and the shot went right over it's head. Without missing a beat, the seven foot tall walking tank came back to standing position while still firing.

But despite the hellish losses that the aliens were taking, they continued their advance eager to rip the Spartans apart.

Suddenly from the weapons of the Spartans, spent energy cells ejected. As one, with an extremely fluid motions the cyborgs pulled out fresh energy cells and slapped them into the hungry well of the weapon then with seemingly perfect coordination resumed firing.

Then without warning, from the underneath the lethal lightmass weapons that the Spartans were using, small cylindrical objects leaped clear and arced towards the aliens. When they landed they exploded in the dazzling gold-white flash of UNSC plasma explosives and shrapnel flew through the air, pained wails rose up from those who were maimed by either the fragments or the intense heat from the detonation of the lethal devices and promptly fell where they were then trampled by their allies.

" _Heads-up Moose Lead, we got company coming; hostile air support inbound ETA five minutes._ " Moose Four said and Moose Lead winked his status light in response.

Moose Lead glanced at the distance indicator and knew that the time was now for the next phase. "Continue firing for five seconds and then execute phase two, mark" he ordered.

Status lights winked in response and thus the wanton killing continued for five additional seconds before the Spartans leaped off the low stone wall, the ground beneath them literally vibrating at the horde that was baying and bellowing for their blood. They hit the ground, spun and then ran; racing to the top of a sandstone hill that ended in a sheer cliff, a half-kilometer distance in twenty-eight seconds flat.

Behind them the aliens barked and bayed, demanding the blood of the Spartans. They surged up the hill, firing as they ran sending bolts of energy and projectiles streaking upwards.

" _This is quite a party Moose Lead. Welcome mat is ready to receive._ " Moose Four said, firing a sustained burst from her HAR-1 and completely decapitating a Brute Captain thanks to the ten or twelve heavy lightmass slugs that crashed into the poor creature.

" _Open the reception._ " Moose Lead ordered.

The entire hillside exploded with a primal roar, chunks of sandstone was flung in all directions amid a tremendous cloud of flame and smoke as an series of Lotus-II Anti-Tank Mines that had been laid out earlier in the simulation exploded with titanic force.

As one the Spartans switched to Promethean vision and quickly found the few survivors from the immense fusion enhanced blasts. Precision shots from the BR150SRs, SRS-105 Series-2 AM, and the HAR-1 that the team possessed easily exterminating them through the mass of smoke and dust that now enshrouded the hilltop. Just like that, the primary threat was neutralized.

Moose Lead boosted his motion tracker range to maximum and quickly detected the incoming airborne threats that were moving at four hundred twenty kilometers per hour, which meant that they were old Type-54 Banshees. Beneath his helmet, Moose Lead grinned broadly. He quickly formulated a plan to destroy the enemy attack ships.

The Spartans dispersed ducking down into the mess of debris that now strewn the field. Thirty seconds later, the alien attack fliers screamed in, with a daemonic howl as they banked over the carnage.

"Engage!" Moose Lead bellowed before opening fire.

Streams of lethal hardlight slugs lanced upwards, catching the Banshees off guard. One of the lethal craft had an entire side seemingly shatter like glass as a shot from Moose Six's SRS-105-S2-AM rifle punched through its energy shields, smash through the belly of the craft causing fractures to appear all over it's belly, pulped the pilot, and then caused the entry hatch to shatter outward as the slug exited. It dropped away from the formation.

Another Banshee had it's shields fail as it was targeted by Moose Four's HAR-1. The heavy caliber light mass projectiles promptly ripped the craft to shreds, great pieces of nanolaminate plating visibly shattered or was sheared away by the rounds. Flames erupted from the craft and it entered a death dive, trailing thick black smoke as it plunged downwards.

The three remaining Banshees scattered, but one got focused down and torn apart by fire from Moose Two and Three. It tumbled from the sky missing a wing, slamming into the ground and exploding.

Moose Six fired again and one of the remaining Banshees appeared to just fold-in half in the middle and fluttered to the ground with a rain of shattered nanolaminate.

The last Banshee literally disintegrated as the entirety of Fireteam Moose unloaded on it, the shields that it had providing absolutely no protection. It dribbled downwards in an unrecognizable mess of material and gibbed pilot.

A moment later, the sign of VICTORY appeared on Moose Lead's HUD. He grinned, that had been flawless. "Well done Moose Team. But that was just the warm-up, for this next one we are going into the old mission archives. Installation 04, 2552; Silent Cartographer all the way through to the Library." Moose Lead said and the five other members of Moose Team collectively groaned. Those missions were some of the hardest in all of War Games, getting through that series of simulations with an intact Spartan fireteam was damn near impossible.

* * *

 _Codex-entry, Misriah Armories HAR-1_ : Known as the Hardlight Automatic Rifle-One or the HAR-1 for short. This SAW-type weapon is brand-new having only entered service a couple of months ago. This weapon fires heavy Lightmass (also known as Hardlight) rounds that like all Lightmass weapons combine both aspects of Plasma Weapons and Gauss Weapons that were first seen on Requiem in 2558 as well as having the capability to switch round type in an instant AP, Shredder, or explosive plus it also has the capability to switch caliber at the flick of a switch but it only has three round caliber types with both in the 7.62mm range one is a regular round and the other is a subsonic round. It has a rate of fire of twelve hundred rounds per minute from a replaceable power cell with enough energy for five hundred rounds before needing to be replaced. It can be fitted with a variety of sights, including a 1.5x Smart-link scope for long-range suppressive fire.

* * *

 _Codex-entry, Misriah Armories Battle Rifle One-Fifty Service Rifle:_ Standard issue rifle for Spartan and ODST units, thanks to being a lightmass/hardlight weapon it has the same aspects as both plasma and projectile weapons combined into one. Plus with the flick of a switch it can fire a variety of different round types and calibers with varying rates of fire. The most typical round caliber however is the lightmass equivalent of a .380 caliber, 22 gram slug which allows for an effective range without optics of 420-meters and with the standard 2.5x smart-link scope a maximum range of 1300-meters with a sustained rate of fire of seven hundred rounds per minute and allowing for each power cell to provide energy to the internal ammunition micro-factory for 120-rounds before needing to be replaced.

* * *

 _Codex-entry, Misriah Armories Sniper-Rifle-System 105-Series-2 AM Rifle_ : This lightmass/hardlight weapon is incredibly lethal, firing hardlight slugs in the 15mm range. It's capable of taking the hat off a Hunter at 2,000 meters and it has a maximum range of just over 7,000-meters. This weapon proudly serves as the main Sniper Rifle System for the Spartans and the ODSTs.


	7. Meetings and Violence Begins

**AN: Alright, here we go, another chapter is posted and ready to be read. Please provide helpful and kind reviews, not trying to be a backseat author.**

 **Banana: For now on, unless you have something to contribute other than spewing hate. I am just going to delete your reviews, have a nice day!**

 **Guest1: Alright, I am going to breakdown these numbers down barney style. 70-metric tons is about how much the Space Shuttle weighs empty and 125-metric tons is about one-fifth the weight of the Christ the Redeemer statue. Another apt comparison would be comparing a .75-caliber Musket ball to a modern .223-caliber rifle bullet, sure the musket ball does more damage against soft tissue but if it hits something armored it's gonna stop, although granted, it'll probably put the unfortunate sucker on his ass just from the kinetic energy transfer but the guy will survive if a little sore, whereas a .223-caliber round can punch through body armor and then have the capability to put the sucker wearing it on the ground. This is because the .223 is going way faster than the .75-caliber musket ball and it's lighter.**

 **Guest2: Thanks, that is what I am intending to do. Ignore the ones who say that I should stop writing or that I am ignoring the lore when I am trying to build lore for this 'verse.**

 **Guest3: Uh? How. Please explain why it's a complete ME wankfest? I am confused. Also, I am not going to stop writing. It's my favorite past time.**

* * *

 **0500 Hours, February 8th 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi**

 **Turian staging area for the offensive on Human Defensive Positions**

Grand General Kuril glowered at the holographic map, the defenses appeared to be impregnable and extremely well thought out. Trench lines connected to pillboxes and machine gun nests formed the first defensive lines about two hundred meters in front of the rolling hills while in front of those trenches was razor wire and vehicle traps, he also wouldn't be surprised if there was a minefield in front of the trenches. To make matters worse about one hundred meters behind the first line of trenches were mortar pits while even further back, about three hundred fifty meters back behind those trenches lay several companies of tanks in a reverse slope hull down position. That would make their tanks hard as hell to take out.

Worse although he couldn't see them, he was certain that there was additional vehicles scattered about the defensive line and sniper nests in the general area. Flanking was nearly impossible due to the terrain and the fact that similar defenses were their. He looked over the forces that he had at his disposal, on paper it looked impressive with four Legions that had already been bloodied on this planet: 38th Mechanized Infantry Legion, 193rd Mechanized Infantry Legion, 78th Assault Infantry Legion, and the 203rd Armored Legion as well as four additional Legions that had arrived just barely thirty hours previously, the 212th Assault Infantry Legion, the 371st Assault Infantry Legion, 501st Mechanized Legion, and 105th Armored Legion.

But there was a major problem, the 78th Assault Infantry Legion had suffered heavily at the hands of the enemy. They were meant to move hard and fast, with an emphasis on hammering through enemy positions and by-passing enemy strong points for the Mechanized and Armored Legions that would follow behind them in an offensive. Problem was that they just didn't _have_ the survivability in a standup fight due to the fact that the primary infantry fighting vehicle that Assault Legions used was a variant of the Jiris Infantry Fighting Vehicle, called the Kroax. It was usually very good at its job but it's shields and armor couldn't really take a punch. Other variants of the Kroax were used as AA vehicles, Tank Destroyers, Infantry Support Vehicles, Mortar Carriers, and SPGs. They would also typically have a small formation of Hellion MBTs to provide the firepower and durability needed to face enemy tanks. As it stood, the 78th Assault Legion was down by over forty percent of it's combat strength in terms of vehicles alone thus it had been left to occupy the city.

Thus, using Assault Infantry Legions in their intended role was out. But what he could do was use them in the opposite of their intended role. Use the Mechanized and Armored Legions (which he was worried that he didn't have enough _of_ ) as the spearhead for an attack and when/ _if_ they breakthrough those lines, send the Assault Legions into the hole. It was completely counterintuitive to Turian tactics but if they were going to have a chance at victory if the attempt at parlaying failed at least he had hoped.

In all honesty though, he was extremely worried. Mainly because while the Human CO, a Major General Franklin Williams had agreed to meet him, he was worried that one of his subordinates would do something rash. At least the terms for the meeting was acceptable, each side would be allowed two full squads plus vehicular support.

"General I must protest! These humans have violated Citadel Law and must be punished why are you trying to Parlay when protocol dictates that we must bring them to heel." Lanus snarled angrily.

Grand General Kuril fixed the younger the Turian with a glare that caused him to take an involuntary step back in response. "General Lanus, know this. I am trying to prevent further bloodshed, you've seen the way that the defenses are arranged. It would take at least _two_ full expeditionary forces to have a chance at cracking those defenses open and even then the casualties would be absolutely horrific not to mention they didn't even _know_ about Citadel Law so how can you blame them?" he asked in a half growl as he strood towards his transportation that would take him to a position where he would (hopefully) meet his opponent: a Tyrus.

"Does it seriously matter?! It's against protocol and Citadel Law is absolute." Lanus barked in response.

"Your out of line High General, you've voiced your protests but I am _not_ going to waste the lives of my soldiers for little gain because that's what is going to happen if we continue our offensive. It would be an unnecessary waste of good soldiers on _both_ sides. Plus even if we smash that defensive line, we'll be so badly spent that any forces that survive us smashing that line will be able to consolidate and then wipe us out." Kuril said as he spotted the other portion of his escort, two Kroax's and a Tyfion SPAAG.

Just twenty men to protect the highest ranking officer in theater. Many would argue that it wasn't enough of an escort. But for what Grand General Kuril was trying to do, it would be more than enough.

"Your honestly doing this? Your career will be in ruins!" High General Adanus said as she walked up, coming to attention as she did so.

"I am killing my career but I want to be remembered for either stopping this war or die trying to stop this war. As such, may I remind you that until I return all planetary offensive operations are too stop and will either recommence or halt entirely on my orders _only_." Kuril said, repeating what he had said the previous day.

"If the attempt to Parlay fails?" Lanus asked.

"Then may the Spirits protect us." Kuril said shaking his head. He then without fanfare, climbed into the Tyrus. Inside the vehicle were two Turian Cabal troopers, personal bodyguards for the Grand General along with the twenty normal troopers. The moment he was seated, the back ramp closed and the vehicle shifted into gear before having it's engine deliver a throaty roar and the vehicle sped away. Quickly following it came a pair of Kroax IFVs and a Tyfion SPAAG, there anti-gravity drives giving out a sound that was a combination of a low whine and an oscillating hum.

Snarling with dismay, General Lanus turned back towards the command center and stormed off into it. Not much he could do about it, regardless he watched the Holotable as the vehicles thundered out of the assembly area and towards the human lines. He hoped that Kuril would fail in his task and that they could get to doing their actual job. Which was bringing these bastards to heel under the unstoppable might of the Turian Hierarchy. They had the orbitals, yet they hadn't used the navy for gunfire support, the reason that they hadn't was apparently because of hostile surface to orbit guns.

Still, their was a chance here. One that he could use to his advantage, chances were pretty likely that his foolish attempt to mediate peace talks would likely succeed. He could try for decapitation shot of the enemy forces. "Fear not Grand General Kuril, your sacrifice will not be in vain. I guarantee that." His mandibles flared into the equal of a grin.

He pulled up the patrol routes and pre-planned paths for air strikes and did the Turian equal of a grin. With just a few punched in commands and transmitting orders to one of the patrols to alter its course and patrol area along with new orders.

* * *

Kuril unaware of the scheming of his immediate subordinate sat inside the Tyrus as it bounded over the rough terrain. He looked at the two Cabal Troopers, both of them looked nervous. "What's the plan, sir?" one of them asked.

"I am sure that you've seen the enemy's defensive positions and are familiar with how badly the fleet suffered in orbit?" Kuril asked and when the two troopers nodded in response he continued. "Good, this whole disaster has been the result of a misunderstanding and a badly thought out protocol. Worse we are now at war with an opponent who is more advanced than we are, thus I am going to try and attempt to Parlay with the enemy commander. I know it's against protocol and regulations, not to mention that it'll probably fail but after the death of my naval counterpart, I am now the highest ranking officer in theater. Which means if necessary, I can at that the very least attempt to negotiate a ceasefire."

The two Cabal Soldiers looked at him surprised. "General why are you doing this?" one of them asked.

"Why? I am trying to hopefully prevent this from becoming an extremely bloody war. But that depends on how the meeting goes and how everyone else takes it. I might be committing career suicide but, it's the right thing to do and it'll save a lot of lives." Kuril replied.

"I can agree with that sir. My entire Cabal team got wiped out by _one_ man. I've looked over the footage and I am still having trouble believing it." The other Cabal trooper, Diia Remitis said shaking her head.

Kuril felt a pang of sympathy for the young Private. It had likely been a miracle that she had survived her encounter with whatever that thing had been. The general consensus had been that it had been a machine at least until one of the more experienced medical techs had gone over the helmet cam footage, slowed down to as slow as possible and had concluded to everyone's shock, amazement, and quite frankly outright terror that it _wasn't_ a machine but an organic being and that to get that sort of performance out of an organic being it sure as hell wasn't genetic modifications. Which made everyone wonder just what the hell the Spirits-damned thing _was_.

"I have to admit, it was hard to watch that." Kuril said, thinking back to the video in question.

"They say it's impossible for Turians to feel fear, personally that's a lie. In a firefight, if you aren't scared then you're either dumb, an idiot, or dead. But when that thing engaged us? I felt pure _terror_ , it's one thing to miss with a biotic attack, it happens. But it's another thing to see someone legitimately _dodge_ a biotic attack _and_ weave through mass accelerator fire as if it's nothing. How do you fight something like _that_?" Diia asked, wonderment and fear in her voice.

"I shudder to think what would've necessitated the creation of those things." The other Cabal soldier said.

"I am sure that heard the rumors?" Kuril asked.

"You mean the ones about humanity and the Covenant Empire? They haven't been seen by anyone living in Citadel Space since the Rachni Wars, how do they pertain to our current situation?" Diia replied confused.

"First, the speed of scuttlebutt never ceases to amaze me." Kuril muttered under his breath before continuing. "Those rumors are true, humanity fought a very brutal war against them. The events that we saw in the documentary that revealed that little tidbit to us, it was at least as bad for humanity as the Krogan Rebellions were for Citadel Space. By the end of the so-called 'Harvest Campaign', five years of incredibly tough fighting, an entire garden world had its surface burn until it was like glass." Kuril growled.

Diia made a choking sound. "A war on that scale?! It makes me wonder why it started and how long it lasted." she said.

"Yeah, it's mind-boggling as for the war itself? Harvest was just a _campaign_ , that war would last for nearly thirty human years and the reason it started was because someone mistranslated a document or message or something." Kuril said, his voice shaking with quiet outrage.

"Just how does a screw up like that happen, that's what I want to know! Yet I am also curious as to how humanity could stand up to the might of the Covenant Empire." The other Cabal member snarled before realizing how far he was out of line. "Sorry, sir."

"It's alright, I don't blame you. I felt the same way after watching that thing, as for fighting the Covenant? That's the thing, the documentary implied that on the ground despite humanity not having any mass effect or energy weapons at their disposal and thus stuck with using chemical propellant weapons and some Gauss weapons that they could just about fight the Covenant to a stand still. But in orbit? That's where they struggled, at best they needed three of their own warships in order to kill a single Covenant warship at worst they needed something like five of their own ships to equal one Covenant vessel." Kuril said, shaking his head.

The Tyrus they were riding in crested a hill and caught minor air before slamming into the ground, the suspension took most of the shock out of the impact but the jolt was still noticeable. From the crew compartment just forward of where they were, the sounds of the vehicle's commander chewing out the driver for being an idiot could be heard. Kuril for his part had to stifle a chuckle, just because he was the commanding officer of the 6th Expeditionary Force, it didn't mean that he needed special treatment. He remembered what it was like going through a rough ride in a Tyrus.

"Anywhere between three to five ships for a single Covenant ship, Spirits that's terrifying. Did we suffer that badly during the Rachni War against Covenant Empire 'observers'?" Diia asked.

"Using standard tactics against them? Not really sure, I am groundpounder not a swabbie. But it was probably at least that bad for us, maybe worse." Kuril replied before opening his Omni-tool and connecting with the acting flagship of the 6th Expeditionary Fleet, the PFS _Judgement Day_ attaching the proper code for a direct face-to-face transmission with the acting CO of the 6th Expeditionary Fleet.

After a moment, the _Judgement Day_ 's comms officer verifies his authentication code and the call connects. The glowering face of General Caitis Bruril appeared on the haptic display, he took one note of Kuril and likely the background noise and sighed. " _So your really going through with this?_ " he asked without fanfare.

"If the situation was different I wouldn't have even thought about doing this. But you saw my after action report, I am not confident in my ability to win this battle not without orbital support or excessive air support and the enemy has fairly hefty anti-air and we can't snipe enemy positions without the fleet getting shot to hell by those Surface-to-Orbit guns. Plus, we are at a major technological disadvantage and even if _we_ win, the moment that they land reinforcements the entirety of the Expeditionary Force will be screwed. That would be wasting the lives of my command and I will be the unlucky one to send who knows how many Spirits-damned letters to families telling them that their son, father, mother, or daughter had been killed in action." Kuril said his mandibles flaring slightly.

Caitis sighs and shakes his head. " _I agree with how you feel Kuril, but you realize that by doing this your likely committing career suicide?_ " he asked.

"I know that, but if it saves the lives of my men and prevents this conflict from spiraling out of control, then so be it. You know I well as I do that our chances of winning a prolonged war is likely very low just by going what we've seen and you've seen that documentary we sent up, what are the chances that they still got those big warships?" Kuril replied.

Caitis blanched visibly. " _Probably very likely and considering that the strength of their energy shields seems to scale, we'll likely be very screwed if something the size of one of their 'Cruisers' shows up._ " He replied.

"Exactly, so I can only hope that we are successful in trying to prevent this from becoming worse." Kuril said.

Caitis bowed his head but judging from the way his mandibles were set, he was worried. " _Just be careful, your in uncharted territory._ " he said.

"I will be, just remember your the highest ranking navy general in theater and the lives of those in the fleet are in your care. If you have to pull out in order to preserve lives and your command, then do so." Kuril said in a firm tone.

" _May the Spirits guide your path, Caitis out._ " Then the connection cut.

* * *

 **0535 Hours, February 8th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi**

 **M28 Lynx Infantry Fighting Vehicle**

"Your sure about this sir?" Fred-104, also known as Sierra One-Zero-Four, asked doubtfully.

"Positive son, just the fact that they are asking for a Parlay means that it's a chance to try and stop this pointless fight. We don't even know why we're fighting, at worst the damn thing goes nowhere and we got to kick the Birds off Shanxi the hard way." General Franklin Williams replied shaking his head.

"But what if this goes sour?" Fred asked, still looking a little dubious about this whole Parlaying idea.

"Then I am protected," Williams replied gesturing to his belt which had an object about the size of Fred's fist when in Mjolnir armor, a Kinetic Barrier emitter and then to the M6L Magnum Pistol. "Besides I got a Spartan-II as my personal bodyguard plus two full squads of troopers as escort plus a quick reaction force on standby in case this goes sour."

"I know sir. It's just when it comes down to Spartans and missions going bad, when they do go bad it's almost never something minor that while inconvenient is something that's easy to deal with. It's almost always something that typically puts both Plan A and Plan B in the crapper and if your luck is _really_ rotten, will put Plan C and part of Plan D in the crapper as well." Fred said shaking his head.

To Fred's relief, the Major General nodded in response, understanding the Spartan's concern. "I understand how your feeling. But a chance to end a seemingly pointless war? I am jumping at it, my men won't like it but then again it's easy to imagine why they won't but if it means they all go home."

Fred couldn't help but feel the sameway, sure it was his duty to fight the enemy. But at the sametime, if more UNSC soldiers made it home alive it was something that he could take off his chest. Particularly when he thought about the easily hundreds possibly thousands of UNSC soldiers who had died following him into the fight and those who he could've saved but the situation didn't allow for it or he was too slow on the matter.

Regardless, why did he still feel uneasy about this whole thing? As his long deceased 'brother', Kurt would say "It's just a feeling". He wished that the man was here today, mainly because the he had been exceptional at sniffing out traps and ambushes, as he and the other members of Blue Team had found out to their dismay during training on several occasions. But maybe a little bit of Kurt's seemingly magical ability to sniff out ambushes had rubbed off on him, because something just felt _off_ about this whole thing but he couldn't put his finger on _what_ felt off.

Maybe it was just the fact that they were parlaying with what effectively amounted to an unknown enemy that had him on edge as well as the normal pre-mission jitters. Stifling a sigh, he checked his plasma rifle, the MA7B Plasma Rifle had a boxy yet sleek look to it and it was a fairly reliable rifle, complimenting the MA7 was the powerful M-3 Stinger Plasma Pistol he had acquired back at Badate Armory and of course the Spartan Laser. At least he was no longer in the Gladiator Hardsuit but was in the Guardian which had much better protection, even if the thing still had kinetic barriers only but it was durable as hell in terms of actual physical protection offered.

Something just felt off, but Fred knew that when he saw whatever it was that was putting him off, he would recognize it. He just hoped that it was something that could be easily dealt with, but given how sour Spartan missions could go, he wasn't sure on that either.

" _Five minutes out from the scheduled meeting point sir. We got enemy vehicles on our scopes, looks like one SPAAG and three IFVs. Note that one is a wheeled variant and the other two IFVs and the SPAAG however are hover vehicles._ " The commander of the Lynx remarked as the vehicle powered forward.

"Any infantry?" Fred asked, wanting to know what else they were dealing with.

" _About twenty, looks like two standard hover IFV squads. Lightweight armor from the looks of things, color is different as well, it's a dark grey and brown instead of green and brown. Weaponry, looks rifles and SMGs with a couple of heavy weapons._ " The vehicle commander replied.

Fred nodded at this, it seemed like there was three distinct classes of hostile infantry: light and heavy. Just like with the Covenant, the type of infantry was identifiable by the color of the armor that they were wearing. From what he remembered about clashing with hostile light infantry, they had fairly powerful shields but poor armor protection but made up for with exceptional agility and mobility. In other words, they reminded him a lot of Covenant Skirmishers being fairly difficult to hit but they couldn't take a punch if they got hit. Interesting choice of infantry escort he supposed, part of the agreement was two infantry squads from both sides to help with securing the meeting site and up to two personal bodyguards.

Regardless something didn't feel right about the whole thing.

* * *

Kuril watched as the UNSC procession entered the clearing that they had agreed to use as the meeting place. It was an interesting choice of vehicles, the lead vehicle was an imposing hover vehicle of some kind. It appeared be well designed, with a sharply angled front with a slight flare on either side, mounted what seemed to be fairly far forward was a turret and it was equipped with what appeared to be a heavy autocannon, what could be judging by the barrel bore a grenade launcher, and a machine gun while mounted on either side of the turret was what appeared to be ATGM boxes.

Following in behind the lead IFV was two more just like it, accompanying those two vehicles were three additional vehicles. One was a half-track of all things, a SPAAG from the looks of it because mounted behind the cabin was a turret with two cannons of some sort and two banks of seven missiles on the sides.

The other two vehicles however, looked extremely similar to the 'Warthog' as the POWs called them. But they had a different body design plus a flatbed with another soldier manning what appeared to be a big machine gun while their was another soldier sitting next to the driver who had what appeared to be a missile launcher.

The two 'Warthogs' peeled away and took position on the flanks. But instead of turning their weapons towards his soldiers. Those inside and on the gun began to scan the skies, it suddenly struck him why these vehicles were here, they were to provide a little bit more Anti-Aircraft muscle so that there wasn't as likely of a chance that the SPAAG could get overwhelmed. It also would make sense if they accompanied regular units because while it might not be radar or thermal guided it would at the very least provide a deterrent to hostile craft. Even if it took concentrated fire to crack the kinetic barriers on Turian Strike Fighters once those barriers were down, they would rip them a new one.

He had to admit though, the way that the UNSC designed their IFVs, it gave him the impression that they were likely moderately shielded and armored but he wasn't sure. If anything, they certainly _looked_ tough but he didn't want to find out if they actually were, at least not when he was this close to them. The SPAAG took up a position just a short distance behind where the IFVs were. The two IFVs on the flanks, each disgorged thirteen men who promptly began forming a defensive ring in a prone position although he couldn't get a good look at their equipment.

From the central IFV came two figures, one was shorter than him by probably thirty galactic standard centimeters or so, he was also extremely surprised by just how _similar_ he was to the Asari, it was one thing to see a human on a holoscreen and notice the similarity but it was another thing to see it in person. Although his bodyguard was imposing as hell, he was spirits-damned _huge_. Easily as tall as he was and he was just over a galactic standard meter in height.

To his left, Private Diia made a sound that was very unbecoming of a member of a Turian Cabal member. Then he gave the good general's bodyguard a second look and had his blood turn to ice. The way that it was moving was extremely fluid and graceful, like an Asari dancer or Commando. Yet each movement to him seemed to be calculated and precise, with only the required amount energy used on moving. Out of the corners of his eyes, he could see the two Turian Cabal members that was his own personal escort, Private Diia in particular nervously shifting their weight from foot to foot.

He was standing by a cheap transportable table made of plastics and it was the same deal with the chairs. Nothing fancy but it would get the job done for what he was trying to do. He waited until the human general had gotten to within speaking distance.

To his surprise, the man actually came to what he assumed was parade rest attention. "Grand General Kuril?" he asked, the voice sounding synthesised thanks to the implants in his ear translating what he was saying.

"That would be me, I assume your General Williams?" he said, grateful that he had sent the basic translation program that his techs had cooked up with his offer to Parlay.

The man nodded before replying. "I am, as you can imagine however I am wondering what the hell led up to this." Williams replied.

"We will get to that, but first please have a seat." Kuril said gesturing to the table and seats. Williams nodded and together both of them sat down.

"Alright, now that pleasantries have been dealt with. What I want to know is why the hell your government launched an unprovoked attack against a United Nations Space Command warship and in the process declaring war against the United Earth Government? Also I am curious as to what the name of your species and government is." Williams hissed, sounding peeved.

"I'll answer the first one since it's simple, I am a Turian and my government is called the Turian Hierarchy. The second question while the answer is fairly simple and the reasoning is obvious as well, it's something I've always been against." Kuril said with a sigh before continuing. "One of your ships was found activating a dormant Mass Relay, which is in violation of Citadel Law, I've always been against this. Regardless I am fairly sure you can figure out the rest." he finished.

There was silence for three seconds before Williams spoke again sounding enraged. "Why in the absolute _fuck_ did some fucking rent-a-cop decide to fucking engage and destroy those who are in violation of a law that they had no fucking clue actually _existed_. That action has cost so far the UNSC Navy over ten thousand lives and who fucking knows how many of your own people their lives!" he snarled.

Kuril held up a hand to try and placate the angry human general before this spiraled out of control. "For what's worth general, I've been against that protocol for a very long time. Had it been me who had been commanding that patrol fleet, I would've extended a greeting and explained why activating Mass Relays was a bad idea." he said, his mandibles flaring in a manner that indicated sorrow.

General Williams exhaled as his anger at the situation was shoved to the back of his mind. "For what's worth, you sound sincere. But I can tell you right now that when this is all said and done, the UEG will want the head of that patrol fleet's CO mounted on a pike. However I would like to hear the reasoning for why this law was implemented." he said actually sounding curious.

"To prevent another war as destructive as the Rachni War, it all started with a science team activating a dormant Mass Relay and going through it. There they discovered the Rachni, first contact went horribly wrong and it resulted in a three hundred year long war, millions dead and easily a dozen garden worlds similar to this one rendered uninhabitable. I won't go in to details but in response the Citadel Council, which at the time was composed of just two other races, before you ask, yes the Hierarchy is apart of the Council but we didn't join until later and you aren't at war with the entirety of it, just the Hierarchy. Anyway to prevent another war as devastating as the Rachni War, it was made illegal to activate a Mass Relay without the express permission from the Citadel Council." Kuril explained, revealing not the full truth but something close enough to it that it practically was the truth.

Williams swore. "Great, even more things for politicians to sort out. But after a war as long and destructive as this 'Rachni War' was, I can see the reasoning for it. Although what moron decided that they should shoot first and ask questions later? Sounds like a recipe for disaster." he asked.

"I've been against the policy for years, better to extend friendship then mass accelerator fire. But, let's focus on doing the right thing first." Kuril said.

"In order for this to through, I'll have to get in contact my superiors. But in order for hostilities to end we must do several things first." Williams said.

* * *

 **0600 Hours, February 8th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi**

 **Two F-70 Ravens**

It was said that the best fighter of the early 21st Century and even as far as fifty years later was the legendary F-22 Raptor. Pilots from that era had referred to that fighter has "God's own aircraft". In the 27th Century, there was exactly _one_ purpose built in-atmosphere operable multirole air-superiority fighter that would fill that designation even if the newer Sangheili Empire designs came close.

That fighter was the UNSC's F-70 Raven, their pulse detonation bypass afterburning turbofan engines produced 65,000 pounds of thrust at full military thrust and in afterburner they produced over 80,000 pounds of thrust, resulting in the twenty-three meter long fighters with their incredibly sleek vaguely Kunai blade shaped airframes being pushed through the atmosphere at speeds that would make Raptor pilots from the 21st Century green with envy. However, the Raven at the moment were in very low numbers on Shanxi, only fourteen of the fighters had survived the enemy's bombardment.

"Contacts at long range, five bogies bearing 330 moving east at seven-zero-zero knots. Permission to engage Skymaster?" Lieutenant Kevin Rawley, callsign Hawkeye of Warhound Flight asked over the radio. He was in a standard UNSC aviator uniform, a full body combination gee-suit/flight suit with fully enclosed helmet.

" _Negative Warhound Actual, permission denied. Engagements at this point in time have to be cleared by General Williams himself._ " Their AWACS, callsign Skymaster replied.

Hawkeye grumbled as he adjusted his grip on the stick. The two Ravens of Warhound Flight was in perfect position to blast the enemy fighters from the sky as they couldn't hold a candle to the Raven. Their forms didn't appear to be all that aerodynamic, with a fuselage that from the top or bottom looked like a feather or quill but from the side had a seemingly swollen belly while the wings were shaped similarly to a meat cleaver with a razor sharp edge but a relatively thick main part and they were rather small. It was almost as if they brute forced their way into the air thanks to Mass Effect.

"Skymaster, permission to play with them?" Hawkeye asked a few minutes later.

" _Negative Warhound Actual, permission denied._ " Skymaster replied.

 _Ugh, this is boring._ Hawkeye thought as he brought his Raven into a tight bank in order to shadow the enemy planes. His wingman sticking close to his wing, the hostiles were some seven thousand meters below them. When suddenly something on his radar caught his attention.

"Holy shit! Skymaster! Enemy missile separation on all five birds! Two, four, six missiles from each plane!" Hawkeye shouted.

" _Warhound Squadron weapons free! Blast those bastards out of the sky!_ " Skymaster barked sharply.

"Roger that, Warhound 1-2 with me!" Hawkeye said before flicking his master arm switch and then warmed up the massively powerful radar. The piper came down on one of the enemy planes.

" _Affirmative boss!_ " Warhound 1-2 replied.

"Warhound Actual, Fox Three!" Hawkeye barked before firing, the central bay opened and revealed the rotary launcher contained within. Two AIM-155A Diamondback AMRAAMs dropped out of the bay and engaged their engines. They streaked away and down towards the alien fighters, Warhound 1-2 did the same.

The enemy formation scattered, dropping decoys as they frantically turned into the missiles. But they weren't fooled, the microchip brain in the lethal warheads didn't use element zero seekers with active infrared backup that was the norm in Citadel space but instead used active radar homing with active infrared imaging backup. As a result, the decoys that the Turian fighters dropped were almost completely useless.

But wild maneuvering could decoy missiles. One fighter successfully baited one of the missiles after him and the other smashed against his kinetic barriers and detonated with blinding orange fireball that completely enveloped the enemy craft. It emerged from the fireball relatively unscathed although the back end of the fighter was scorched all to hell.

The other fighter wasn't as lucky, the missiles landed in a lethal one-two punch and completely tore away an entire wing after flattening the kinetic barriers. The fighter dropped out of the sky, orange and blue-white flames along with thick black smoke spewing from the craft's shredded airframe as it plummeted towards the ground. With a flash of light, the canopy disintegrated and then the pilot ejected out of the doomed craft.

Hawkeye swore at that sight, wishing that they had AIM-155Bs on planet which had a Plasma-Frag warhead instead of the blast-fragmentation continuous rod warhead that the damn A model had. If they had used Bs, then they would have two kills instead of one and thus the odds would be a little fair.

The two fighters then dove in from above, screaming down towards the enemy at incredibly high velocities and the pilots switched to short-ranged missiles and then ripple fired AIM-100Cs, lethal short-ranged missiles from smaller bays. They tore through the air and caused even more confusion among the Turian fighters as even more missiles came at them. These missiles did have Plasma-Frags but they were easier for the Turians to evade them for they relied on active infrared homing which was something that Citadel countermeasures _could_ handle. As a result only one missile hit, detonating in a lethal proximity blast just a meter away from hostile's cockpit, the golden flash of plasma explosives and specially formulated metal meant that the fighter literally appeared to fold in half and drop out of the sky, a large portion of it vaporized or in the process of melting as well as thoroughly shredded, trailing flames and smoke as it fell.

"Splash two!" Hawkeye whooped gleefully as he saw the carnage.

Then the two Ravens were among their prey. In an instant, Hawkeye was behind a fighter. He brought his piper up as with a thought to his Pilot Neural Lace he switched to guns. The enemy fighter started jinking in every possible direction to try and shake him off, but thanks to the incredible agility of the Raven and the heads-up display he effortlessly kept the fighter in his sights.

"Come on, daddy needs a bullseye." He muttered as he gently squeezed the trigger and the two 25mm railguns spat steel. Blue trailed rounds leaped away from his fighter and slammed into the kinetic barrier which shattered under the barrage from the first full second burst and then he pulled the trigger again. This time the entire rear end of the hostile fighter shattered in a glittering spray of composites and metal, flame and blossoming from fighter as it tumbled from the sky, the pilot fighting for control until it literally came apart several thousand meters below him in the distinctive pitch black flash of a ezero core containment breach, leaving barely anything left with the exception a few twisted and mangled pieces of debris.

" _Hawkeye check six!_ " Warhound 1-2 barked.

In an instant, Hawkeye glanced over his shoulder and spotted an enemy fighter trying to line up a kill shot. In response, Hawkeye sent his fighter into a screaming Kulbit maneuver, in essence causing his fighter to backflip.

The enemy pilot overshot and immediately tried to reverse it on him, nearly succeeding. But Hawkeye chopped power and went into a high yo-yo. Bleeding airspeed and energy, thus succeeding in staying behind him. The hostile then went into a high-speed, high-gee turn in an attempt to out turn the Raven, the antiproton drives blazing with light as the fighter raced into the turn.

Thanks to the thrust-vectoring of the Raven however it easily followed maneuver effortlessly turning inside of the hostile's turn. He had to admit, he was good. But the enemy fighter just wasn't designed good enough for a true no-holds barred dogfight. Not with the way that they used brute force to get into the air. Despite that, the enemy pilot was doing a damn good job keeping out of his targeting brackets.

Suddenly the enemy fighter went into a barrel roll and Hawkeye swore, he countered with his own barrel roll and the two aircraft began to cut an intricate rolling scissors across the sky. Climbing and weaving in an energy race, whoever ran out of energy and speed first would wind up being a sitting duck unless they disengaged by diving away or engaging their afterburners. But doing either maneuver at the wrong time would leave them extremely vulnerable to being either bounced or having a missile shoved up your tailpipe.

Turian Fighters could go pretty damn fast and maneuverable, thanks to their element zero cores and thrust-vectoring antiproton drives but they had to be careful. If they increased or decreased their mass too much when they were in atmosphere, they could become uncontrollable to the point that it could force the pilot to abandon their fighter. Which meant that the pilot had to play a balancing act with their throttle, control surfaces, and mass settings otherwise bad things could happen.

Regardless the pilot while good realized that he was couldn't maintain this against a Raven, the poorly thought out aerodynamics of his fighter worked against him. Thus he suddenly rolled away after they scissored past each other, diving for the deck in a tight defensive spiral. The fighter pulled out at less than ten meters above the deck and raced back towards the enemy lines.

Hawkeye brought the targeting brackets up and got the lock on. "Fox Three! Fox Three!" he called as he pulled trigger. The centerline bay opened and two more Diamondbacks dropped away, ignited their motors and leaped forward.

It took the missiles almost a minute to catch the enemy fighter and blow it apart. With no chance to eject, the flaming wreckage of the aircraft had one of it's wings clip the ground and cartwheeled end over end, becoming a tumbling wheel of fire and shattering metal as well as fracturing composites. It came to rest several hundred meters away from it had clipped the ground, completely unrecognizable. "Splash three!" Hawkeye said as he brought his fighter around and checked his IFF.

He smiled, Warhound 1-2 was still in the air as well and had likely splashed his own hostile as well.

" _That was relatively easy, still who the hell were they shooting at Actual?_ " Warhound 1-2 asked.

"No idea Warhound two, but whoever they were shooting at is in for a very bad day. Particularly considering what we know of the capabilities of enemy ordnance. Which isn't much but we have seen is pretty impressive." Hawkeye replied.

" _Yeah, I am inclined to agree sir._ " Warhound Two replied.

* * *

 **0615 Hours, February 8th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi**

 **Turian Hierarchy-UNSC Parlay Meeting Point**

The bellowing roar of the Turian SPAAG's singular quad-barrel rotary Mass Accelerator and the crackling sizzle of the dual pulse laser cannons of the UNSC SPAAG filled the air in the clearing as the _Turian_ missiles barreled in, but their was too many missiles and not enough AA. To make matters even worse, these systems had been designed to engage cruise missiles and similar ordnance, not these relatively small, fast moving, and maneuvering missiles.

Regardless the gunners on both vehicles were trying thus the air was filled with stuttering beams of light and blazing blue tracers as they tried and had some success. In an instant, the blazing stream of shells connected and ripped one missile apart, sending it tumbling to the ground. A moment later, another got speared by a laser bolt and was punched out of existence as the laser bolt effortlessly sliced through the delicate plating then through the internals causing both the warhead and the missile fuel to ignite. The SPAAGs kept up their fire and downed six more missiles but it quickly became apparent that they were going to get a number of leakers.

"COVER YOURSELVES!" A Turian soldier bellowed and the soldiers scattered, diving to the deck and making themselves as small as possible as they came to the horrifying realization that the missiles were going to penetrate the defensive fire.

Fred realized just how much trouble they were in and grabbed the one piece of equipment off his belt that could likely save both Major General Williams and Grand General Kuril even as they both dove to the ground. Kuril's escorts throwing themselves atop of him to try and protect him from the ensuing maelstrom that was about to befall them all.

"Deploying bubble shield!" he barked before thumbing the activation switch on the generator which was about the size of his fist and tossing it to the ground. A half-second later the yellow hexagonal shield burst into existence and then throwing himself on General Williams as carefully as possible, mainly because in this armor with all the gear he weighed close to 700-kilograms.

Ten seconds later all hell broke loose as the surviving missiles arrived. Fred actually saw when the first one landed or rather didn't land, the thing detonated less than a meter above a Turian IFV in a violent roaring crash as brilliant white light flared and washed over the IFV and everything in what appeared to be a five or six meter radius. There was screams from those caught in the light that was quickly cut short as the field first contracted violently and then the field exploded with volcanic force and everything within it shattered and was hurled in all directions: dirt, stones, sticks, pieces of weapons, ammunition blocks, grenades, armor, the IFV, and body parts. Throwing all of this debris at spectacular velocities, one fragment of Fred was certain it was from the IFV was thrown with so much force that it crashed through the energy shields of a Lynx IFV like a hot knife through butter and promptly buried itself so deep into the vehicle that it was knocked backwards and it's anti-gravity drive began flickering and sputtering before it failed completely resulting in the thing crashing to ground. The noise of the impact and of the Lynx's anti-gravity drive failing was lost in the roar of the explosion from that first warhead.

Two more just like the first impacted moments later, one detonated directly above what had to be close to an entire Bird squad and the other detonated less than five meters to the left of a Lynx partially engulfing it. The Lynx shifted into gear and tried to get away from the white field that had it partially engulfed but before it could, the field detonated and Fred watched in amazement as a whole third of the thirty-five ton IFV shattered like glass with pieces being thrown in all directions while the remaining intact part of Lynx was thrown as if it weighed nothing. It smashed into the Uller SPAAG which was still blazing away in a futile attempt to destroy the missiles and its energy shields shattered with a brilliant golden flash, having barely slowed the tremendous hunk of composites and metals that was coming at it. The sound of the impact while it was mostly drowned out by the explosions of those fields was still audible as a horrific crunching and crashing sound as well as _felt_ in one's chest. The Uller was shoved violently on it's side, the SPAAG's turret being ripped almost completely off by the impact.

"HOLY SHIT!" A member of Kuril's bodyguard shouted in surprise. The other one was whispering what sounded like a prayer, asking for something called the 'Spirits' to protect them.

Fred didn't see the fourth missile impact but he sure as hell _heard_ it. The cracking heaving hurricane roar sounded like another white field warhead exploding, but judging by where this one exploded it likely wiped out a portion of the UNSC lines.

The Turian SPAAG continued blazing away until an explosion unlike the others roared over it. A tremendous wave of heat and thunder beyond description, the immense fireball completely engulfing the Turian side of the lines. Debris was thrown in every single direction imaginable, the battered bubble shield which had shifted from blue was now beginning to turn red from the immense pounding. As the flames and smoke cleared away, the SPAAG was a twisted and partially shattered ruin, the Wheeled IFV was completely overturned it's turret and hull was mangled, flames licking up from it's corpse.

Another devastating blast roared over them, screams of soldiers were just barely audible over the comms as the Thermobaric munition eviscerated a portion of a defensive line. The pressure wave as well as debris slamming into the weakened bubble shield with cataclysmic force, causing it to flare a brilliant red.

Then the one phrase that Fred had been hoping to hear came over the radio. " _Big Sky tally ho!_ " the pilot of their Pelican said and then the heavy Mass Accelerator that the Pelican had as a chin gun roared and when Fred looked in the direction of the incoming missiles. He watched as the blue-colored slugs carved a lethal path through the various incoming warheads. But not even the Pelican could get all of them.

Two got through storm projectiles despite Big Sky's efforts. The first one detonated twenty meters away directly over one of the remaining Turian IFVs, the vehicle literally shredding itself as the wall of heat and pressure from the Thermobaric warhead crashed into it with tremendous. Debris syncthing through the air as it did so, this combined with heat and pressure wave proved to be too much for the bubble shield and with a pathetic sounding rapid fire three beeps from the generator, it collapsed.

The last warhead exploded seven meters with a hellacious sounding **boom** , shrapnel sang through the air, bouncing off of kinetic barriers and those strange blue barriers. An audible alarm blared in Fred's helmet as his kinetic barriers failed.

Several seconds later all that remained was just silence. Thick choking smoke filled the clearing and flames were crackling as the beginnings of multiple brush fires began. Dozens of trees and the majority of vehicles that had been in the clearing were a mangled ruin. Motion tracker was a mess from all the debris that was in the air, with a thought he cleared up that crap so that it would just show soldier IFFs.

Not many were left, two no three men for the UNSC had survived and were moving. The same was true with the Birds, those damn weird warheads and the Thermobarics had devastated everything through shrapnel, heat, and pressure. The vehicles were either completely destroyed or at the very least overturned. Some of them were recognizable to a degree but others had been so thoroughly mangled to the point that they were unrecognizable, screams of dying men and women began to ring through the air.

When General Williams spoke again to Grand General Kuril it was harsh and angry. "What the fuck was that? You better explain yourself _now_." he snarled.

Kuril however was still looking at the carnage that was everywhere appearing to be simply awestruck, before shaking himself off. "I honestly have no idea what that was about, I swear on my honor that I had no idea about that strike. I sure as hell didn't order it, makes me wonder why that attack occurred but if it makes you feel better this was _against_ my direct orders." he said.

Williams looked like he wanted to shoot something. "Great, a fucking loose cannon is now likely in charge and believes that your dead. Which means that likely within twenty-four hours at most until the enemy launches an attack. Think you can talk him down?" He asked.

"No way, if anything he'll use it as a justification for a treason charge. There's always a choice between following orders and doing what's right." Kuril said shaking his head and looking absolutely distraught.

" _Overlord, this is Big Sky. Coming in to pick you up, it's just carnage from up here. Not seeing many still alive, from either group. They were pretty thorough with their attempt to wipe out everyone in the clearing._ " The pilot said as the big Pelican Dropship roared into the clearing, it's thrusters emitting a massive plume of blue-white fire as the craft entered a hover a half meter above the ground.

The aft ramp opened and two additional squads of thirteen men boiled out. One of the Grand General Kuril's bodyguards had an aura of dark blue energy ripple and wash over his form as he got into the ready position.

"Freeze! On the ground, now with your hands behind head!" At least one trooper roared, leveling his rifle at the Bird. The rifle for it's part emitted a high-pitched whine, as if it was saying "I am ready to rock motherfucker!"

"STAND DOWN!" Both Kuril and Williams yelled together.

"But sir! These _bastards_ just tried to kill you while trying to mediate peace! Lying backstabbing _birds_!" One trooper snarled back.

Before Williams could respond however, Kuril replied. "That's what it seems, but I am the commander of all Turian ground forces on the planet. I distinctly remember giving an order to _all_ of my soldiers to not fire unless fired upon. Whoever ordered that strike did so against my direct orders and thus attempted murder against a Grand General, an act that's punishable by either firing squad or spacing."

Beneath his semi-transparent orange visor, the face of the human soldier contorted into confusion and then his eyes widened in surprise. "Shit, this just got very complicated." He turned to his compatriots. "Ramirez, you check on own wounded! Massey you do the same!"

"Yessir!" The two soldiers in question replied stiffly before hurrying off.

Another soldier barked out similar orders but when the medics protested, the first soldier ripped into him with the ferociousness that only Sergeants disciplining subordinates seemed to have. After a quick "Yessir!" the medics trotted over toward the Turian side of the clearing or rather what was left of it.

"What do we do now sir?" The giant human asked.

"We need to take the initiative and throw the enemy into disarray while moving to get Kuril back to his command as well as punishing whoever order that strike. You got any ideas as to who could've ordered this?" Williams asked.

"One, High General Lanus Camtus. I have no idea how such a manipulative and political maneuvering bare-faced bastard managed to reach his rank, but he was against Parlaying ever since I brought it up. But I never thought that he would do something like this, as of this moment I am charging High General Lanus with insubordination, conspiracy to commit treason, treason, conspiracy to commit murder of a superior officer, and attempted murder of a superior officer to _start_. All of the readings that our hardsuits have picked up will be able prove this fact beyond a shadow of doubt." Kuril snarled, his voice getting a little deeper.

"I see, easiest way we can get you back to your people is by first shattering your unit's will to fight. Also you should contact whoever you have in orbit and inform of them of the situation and have him relay it to your HIGHCOM." Williams said wincing as he realized just how _badly_ Kuril's subordinate had screwed up.

"Yeah, your right about alerting High Command, I just wish that there was a better way to go around with doing this. I want to apprehend him personally as for breaking a unit's will to fight? I am sorry General but Turians don't break and it's something that's never happened in the history of the Hierarchy history." Kuril said.

"Possibly, it isn't the first time that something this crazy has occurred during war. As for the fact that Turians having never broken in combat." he chuckled. "The Covenant thought we would be a pushover that we would be done in two or three years, they failed after twenty-seven years of war and a quite frankly absolutely _idiotic_ political move. Besides I got a few aces up my sleeve including one that could shatter all resistance or at the very least throw the entire force into disarray as they try to figure out how to kill it." Williams said in a rather disconcerting tone.

Kuril voiced his disbelief at General Williams having something that could break a Turian military force before opening up his omni-tool and connecting to the _Judgement Day_ in orbit. What High General Lanus had committed was unforgivable in the extreme. His Omni-tool flashed as it's haptic interface came to life, he typed in rapid-fire commands and to his eternal relief, General Caitius's face appeared in the display.

" _So how did it go?_ " Caitius asked hopefully before seeing the thunderous expression on Kuril's face.

"Poorly, send this to Palaven Military Command Headquarters. I am officially charging High General Lanus Camtus with Conspiracy to commit Treason, Treason, Insubordination, Conspiracy to Murder a Superior Officer, Attempted Murder of a Superior Officer, and that's just to start with. Pertinent hardsuit logs attached." Kuril said, sending the files in question to his commander.

He watched as Caitius reviewed the files in question and watched as first shock then anger spread across his features, such emotions were able to be told through how the mandibles moved. After reviewing the files he looked up. " _This is unforgivable and the proof you have is irrefutable. I will imagine that a stand down order and an arrest warrant will be issued._ " Caitius said.

"Knowing Palaven Military Command, it'll take at least a day for them to process all of this information and evidence. Worse knowing General Caitius, he is already drawing up attack plans, which means that this whole conflict could escalate." Kuril said, tapping his Omni-tool. "Also attached is everything that I've learned about our opponents and the report that led me to try and attempt a ceasefire." he said.

Caitius's eyes widened as the new report was sent up to the _Judgement Day_. The look he gave Kuril was one of surprise and shock after he read through it. " _I see, what is going to be your course of action now?_ " He asked.

"I do not know. From what I know about General Camtus, he's excellent in planning offensive actions but when it comes to planning defensive actions or sudden new developments, he struggles to be effective. Best course of action as much as it pains me to say it, would have to be shatter the 6th Expeditionary Force's will to fight. I however will not be assisting in any way for that action." Kuril said with finality.

" _Understood my friend. I wish that this didn't happen, but it apparently must. In the meantime, we're preparing for hostile contact with enemy forces because they are likely coming._ " Caitius said.

"Affirmative, may the Spirits guide your path." Kuril said stiffly.

" _And the same to you old friend._ " Caitius said.

* * *

 **0150 Hours, February 9th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi**

 **Onboard** _ **Imperator**_ **class Ultra Heavy Assault Walker** _ **Thanos**_

It was no secret that in terms of UNSC vehicles that were currently deployed on Shanxi, the most powerful was by far the _Thanos_. She had her origins in design from Covenant Scarabs but with more of an eye towards practicality. Despite that however, the _Imperator_ class Ultra Heavy Assault Walker still had one thing in mind, to be as intimidating as possible while packing tremendous firepower and protection. Her very purpose was to smash open extremely stubborn fortifications or to lead fast paced assaults on enemy lines and it was something that the _Thanos_ was well equipped for.

"Status on armaments, defenses, propulsion and power, objectives, and the other walkers." Captain Guy Calimes ordered as he straightened his uniform.

"Yessir!" The operations officer and executive officer of the _Thanos_ , Lieutenant Commander Yon Unji replied, flicking through his various displays. "Our current objective is to lead the spearhead for an armored assault against the enemy lines and achieve a breakthrough in the hostile lines. Once our breakthrough is achieved, we are going to push into the enemy rear and destroy or neutralize their forward operating bases and forward air strips. Reactor is stable and operating at maximum power, three-hundred sixty degree holographic viewing panels active. All walkers are reporting that they are ready to move and engage on command."

"Particle cannon online and at full power, pulse missile launchers ready to fire, all human operated Mass Accelerator and Plasma turrets manned and ready, automated pulse lasers charged and ready, Iron Skin active protection system hot and ready for activation on command, energy shields at full power, and armor integrity at one hundred percent." The tactical officer, Lieutenant Milo Matranga said as he reviewed his own displays.

"Navigation protocols active, holographic driver viewport active, hydraulics good, antigrav good. We're ready to move sir!" The driver of the immense war machine, Sergeant Major Maja Latos said calmly, however she did sound _eager_ for the upcoming operation.

"Move out!" Guy barked.

"Yessir!" Latos replied and then _Thanos_ shifted and with a mechanical boom, a massive leg moved forward. The whole walker shifted and then did so again as the other leg moved forward, quickly the walker settled into a steady rhythm. Thirty minutes later they were approaching the engagement point and were ready to attack.

"Targets spotted!" Matranga said as the multiple vehicles were outlined in red.

"Have all walkers and tanks slave to our targeting, time on target barrage execute on my command." Guy ordered.

As he watched through his command screen, dozens if not hundreds of enemy vehicles were there in the treeline. As he watched, a wildly criss-crossing web of trajectories appeared from the friendly units and spider-webbed to the enemy units. As he watched, the powerful computer systems snyc'd the whole thing for one gigantic barrage on his mark.

"Particle cannon cycling up and Pulse Missiles are locking on! Ready to fire, sir!" Matranga said, her finger was hovering above the fire command.

For the briefest moment, Guy thought about the numerous lives that he was about to end. But in the end it didn't matter, it was his job to make those bastards die for their country. "Fire." he said in a firm yet flat tone, one that was devoid of emotion.

The relative silence of the night was shattered in an instant as a dozen Light Assault Walkers, four Heavy Assault Walkers, two Super-Heavy Assault Walkers, and one Ultra-Heavy Assault Walker all unleashed hell, a dozen sickly green beams of plasma and seven blinding particle cannon beams lashed out, splitting the darkness of the night with incredible ease. While a massive horde of pulse missiles launched, _ninety-six_ such weapons launched from the _Thanos_ _alone_ , with the next smaller classes of Walker firing forty-eight, twenty-four, and twelve missiles respectively _each_ , resulting in a storm of _four hundred thirty-two_ pulse missiles. Even as this avalanche of fire lanced forth, the friendly tanks and IFVs opened fire with everything they had, blazing streaks of indigo, electric blue, and orange fire and blinding yellow flashes tore away from them, as well as the shrieks of missiles.

This huge display of firepower when it impacted the Turian lines in an absolutely massive time on target barrage resulted in a tremendous explosion erupting. Trees, bushes, underbrush, enemy vehicles, and enemy infantry all seemed to just melt away under the massive firepower unleashed. Flames and smoke vomiting skyward, along with pieces of debris as well as flaming bodies being thrown for dozens of meters in all directions, thoroughly smashing the enemy line.

Quickly afterward, the ground among the steadily advancing UNSC vehicles erupted as hostile artillery began ranging in while what incredibly few vehicles survived retaliated with their own fire. Stuttering blue streams flashed from enemy infantry weapons as what survivors shook off their shock and retaliated with whatever weapons they had or could get their hands on.

War had been birthed on Shanxi's surface in its fullest form.

* * *

 **CODEX Entry** _-_ _Conflicts_ \- The Rachni War: The Rachni War was a conflict that occurred over a thousand Earth Years ago and it started when a Salarian Research Team activated a dormant Mass Relay and then proceeded through it. On the other side of the Relay they discovered a planet with a primitive species on it, but first contact was a disaster. The entire research team was killed and the Rachni declared total war on the galaxy, they surged forth from their Mass Relay in a horde of Biotech Warships that could block out the sun. In the first few campaigns, the Rachni could only win through sheer numbers as they struggled to fight competently in space battles but groundside, they advanced as a horde demolishing and killing everything in their path. With sufficient numbers in space, the Rachni could be driven back and they were dozens of times.

Until they appeared, ships that were similar to Salarian designs in that they appeared to be organic in look but they had sleek curves and colors ranging from a deep purple to sharp silver. The weapons they possessed were beyond powerful, capable of gutting Dreadnoughts with effortless ease while their shields could absorb a level of punishment that would reduce Dreadnoughts to floating scrap. Hundreds of worlds fell to the Rachni with help from these newcomers who from intercepted, decrypted, and translated communications were revealed to be "observers" from the a conglomerate of alien races known as the "Covenant Empire". The Rachni had been members of a group known as the "Covenant Fringe" who weren't full members of the Empire but more like protectorates.

Hope for the Citadel was discovered when the Salarians discovered the Krogan whose fast breeding rates was similar to the Rachni and each one could equal a dozen Rachni warriors. Thus the Krogan were uplifted and given the technology to be made a space-faring species and were pointed at the Rachni, through a combination of numbers, brutally efficient strategy, and brutally efficient tactics the Krogan with help from the Salarians and Asari among others pushed the Rachni back through the Mass Relay from which they had come all the way back to their homeworld.

Despite offers to surrender from all three races, the Rachni swore in the name of the Gods to fight to the bitter end even as with the exception of a few select warships, the Covenant Empire abandoned the Rachni to their fate. Even without the aid of the Covenant Empire, the final battle of the Rachni Wars was an extremely bloody affair that saw all fleets suffer tremendous casualties, once the battle was over it was decided to not waste more lives taking the homeworld of the Rachni. Instead the planet was rendered completely uninhabitable from orbit with a massive bombardment from Mass Accelerators, Citadel and Krogan Disruptor Torpedoes, Citadel and Krogan Thermonuclear Torpedoes, air-bursting Citadel Singularity Torpedoes, and Asteroids. Analysts agree that the choosing to render the planet uninhabitable from orbit instead of committing ground forces saved at least a million lives from the entirety of the allied forces.

Despite how horrifying the Rachni Wars were, many agree that thanks to the Rachni Wars. It gave both military and civilian R&D a massive and much needed jumpstart, resulting in more powerful Mass Accelerators and new torpedo warheads and torpedo propulsion drives as well as longer ranged and higher output GUARDIAN Lasers, semi-conformal kinetic barriers, advances in hardsuit and warship armor technology, and new avenues of research discovered. As well as better sensor tech and the Citadel discovering Slipstream Space among other things.

It also resulted in three new classes of warship being developed the Battlecruiser and later during the conflict the Battleship as well as the Super Dreadnought.

* * *

 **CODEX Entry** \- _Vehicles_ \- _Imperator_ class Ultra Heavy Assault Walker: The _Imperator_ class Ultra-Heavy Assault Walker is the heaviest of the UNSC's Assault Walkers, like all such heavy vehicles it's heavily armed, heavily shielded, and heavily armored. The vehicle clearly draws influence however from the Covenant Empire's Type-47B Ultra-Heavy Assault Platform also known as the Scarab. But it's more practical in design, with broader feet for better weight distribution, although each foot has a series of spikes that they can deploy and then use to climb steep inclines. Despite that it still stands at an incredibly imposing forty-eight and half meters tall at its highest point.

The main chassis is similar to a rounded rectangular prism supported by four massive legs as well as an anti-gravity drive it also has rockets to help slow itself when it's deployed from orbit. For armament the _Imperator_ is well armed with a massively powerful Particle Cannon mounted at the "prow" of the massive body while mounted atop of the main chassis is a menacing turret with twenty-four pulse missile launchers each with multi-launch capability dotting the flanks and belly is several manned turrets each turret has a twin weapon setup with either Mass Accelerators or Plasma Cannons although older ones in some cases still have Gauss Weapons, finally for defense against aircraft, shells, missiles, and rockets is six Pulse Lasers along the dorsal flank.

For defense, the _Imperator_ is again well equipped with extremely thick armor, well protected joints making it hard to disable, a Soft-Kill Active Protection System for spoofing missiles, Energy Shield Systems for a Hard Kill Active Protection System, and in case capture seems imminent self-destruct capability that can turn the massive walker into a piñata.

* * *

 **Author's postscript: In case you're wondering what the strange warheads the Turians used in the air strike at the meeting, those are what I think Disruptor Warheads would look like in atmosphere. Against infantry, these weapons are beyond horrific, due to the random shifting Mass Effect fields which affects gravity, to an outside observer it appears to take seconds but to someone within that field it'll last much longer and thus they'll feel themselves getting slowly ripped to shreds. That's physics for you.**


	8. Conflict

**AN: Firstly everyone I am terribly sorry about the delay in getting this chapter out but I've been working on a number of new things as well as life has gotten in the way. That as well as working on the latest chapter of Kancolle: New Friends New World which I originally started writing in 2016 and have decided to rewrite the damn thing.**

 **With that out of way, onto the reviews.**

 **Techies: Please, the F-22 Raptor is way more survivable than the Su-35 Flanker-E. For one, the Su-35 isn't a stealth bird whereas the Raptor is, which gives it an advantage is BVR combat. Not to mention the Raptor is incredibly badass, that said I would put money on a Flanker variant over a Super Hornet or Hornet any day :)**

 **Guest1: Glad you like it!**

 **Commissar BS: I completely agree, it's my story.**

 **Banana: First off thank you but I also got to remind you that this is a fusion fic, I have to combine and even rework the lore in order for it to fit in setting that I am trying to create. Trust me at times I don't like doing it but it's a necessary evil, but I am completely willing to clear some things up. On the Forerunner sensors, they aren't actually Forerunner sensors well not exactly. Citadel FTL Sensors are based on Covenant FTL Sensor designs which were based on Forerunner Sensors but over the past thousand years or so, these sensors which are primarily fitted to military ships but research ships also have them, have been improved drastically thus the waveform is closer to Forerunner sensors than Covenant sensors. The** _ **London**_ ' **s computer mainframe, while it couldn't find a match to the waveform chose the closest waveform that matched, thus giving it the designation of Forerunner based sensors. On Element Zero, part of the reason we see these bigger ships is because it's somewhat more common due to the Citadel having access to slipstream drives thanks to the Rachni Wars which was a proxy war between the Covenant Empire and the Citadel but you are correct there aren't many Super-Dreadnoughts. As for putting in the Mass Effect AU, all I will say is this: Damn the character limit on summaries to hell, in order to do it, I would have to rewrite the entire thing as I am only allowed three hundred eighty four characters** _ **including**_ **spaces in order to write the summary, I've used three hundred eighty one characters.**

* * *

 **0145 Hours, February 9th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi**

 **Turian Talon Tank** _ **Firestorm's Fury**_

The Turian Hierachy's Talon Super-Heavy Tank was an intimidating monster of a tank that could absolutely decimate nearly anything it encountered. It was a full twenty-five galactic standard meters long, twelve galactic standard meters wide, and seven galactic standard meters tall. It intimidating pike-nose stood proudly at the forefront of the vehicle. Which combined with it's angled back sloping as well as the composition of the armor, a hyper advanced composite composed of Titanium-Aluminium Alloy, boron fibers, and ceramics which was then compressed by Mass Effect fields until they fused resulting in a tough composite armor that could shrug off nearly anything from the front. Dotted across it's hull were kinetic barrier emitters that were considered to be dropship grade.

Rear-hull mounted turret mounted an absolutely tremendous cannon that was more on par with artillery guns than tank cannons, the coaxial mass accelerator cannon looked pathetically tiny even though it was the main armament for the Tyrus and the same was true of the secondary turret on top with it's automatic grenade launcher and machine gun. This Talon also had the relatively rare option installed with six ball-turreted tri-barreled rotary mass accelerators mounted on the hull as well as having a bow weapon, helping to remove the dead-zone around the tank and mounted on the side of the turret was four multi-purpose missile launchers capable of flash-generating either medium-weight ATGMs or light-weight SAMs as well as propellant charges for the main gun among other things thanks to it's large reservoir of omni-gel. Overall, a fully loaded Talon Super Heavy Tank weighed some two-hundred sixty galactic standard tons, but thanks to its decently sized element zero core, it typically weighed one-hundred twenty galactic standard tons.

 _Firestorm's Fury_ was different from most Talon's however because it's crew had taken liberty with it's sponsons. It was a little known fact that the weapons in said sponsons could in fact be changed from machine guns to other weapons. In this case, the standard 15mm dual barreled machine guns that were typically mounted in the sponsons been replaced with 77mm J-230 Pincher Mass Accelerator Cannons. These were an effective weapon and were easy to manufacture requiring just six power cells in order to power the weapon and thanks to the way it's recoil system was designed, some of the force of the recoil was used to recharge the power cells, thus prolonging the time between changing the cells. It's not so insignificant supplies of omni-gel could be used to flash generate a variety of shells and propellant charges plus having the option to use physical shells and propellant charges. Thanks to it's omni-gel system it could be operated by one soldier although the recommended crew was one gunner, one loader, and one gun captain when it wasn't mounted on vehicles.

However, by having the additional ball turret-mounted Mass Accelerators and the Pinchers it meant that the crew had to be somewhat bigger. The Talon usually had a crew composed of a Commander/Radio Operator, Engineer/Operations, Primary Gunner, Secondary Gunner, Driver, plus two sponson gunners for a total of seven crew members. This one, by virtue of having additional weapon mounts installed had a Commander/Radio Operator, Engineer/Operations, Primary Gunner, Secondary Gunner, Driver, two sponson gunners, and six ball-turret gunners for a total of thirteen crew members.

For Captain Vana Capigius, the overall CO of Saber Company, 5th Cohort, 351st Turma, 105th Armored Legion however. The _Firestorm's Fury_ was more than just a Talon Super-Heavy Tank, it was more akin to her home away home when she was planetside. The deep basso rumbling of it's massive hydrogen engine at idle was comforting once you got used to it, which often took awhile but they were well protected with sixty galactic standard centimeters of the toughest tank-grade composite armor in the Galaxy. It made her feel safe and to a degree invincible. Or at least that is what she had thought until coming to this fucking planet and then the enemy had rocked her world with spirits-damned handheld and vehicle mounted pulse laser weapons that could slice through the thickest armor with ease. Not to mention plasma weapons were extremely common and the missiles were incredibly nasty.

Still, at least soon this damnable campaign was over, she would have the chance to muster out of the military. If she was still alive afterward that is, something about the operation ahead of her just didn't fit well with her. Assaulting the enemy defensive line with what they had was going to be an utter bloodbath, why were they going to assault it? That wasn't Kuril's style of fighting, he preferred to use the terrain to his absolute advantage and hit the enemy hard while sustaining minimum casualties. That was the way that he usually operated when it came to offensives, this suicidal attack made no sense!

 _Firestorm's Fury_ shook slightly which immediately got Capigius's attention, the intensity of a tremor needed to shake a Talon was pretty high. "All hands to fighting stations!" she barked as _Firestorm's Fury_ shook again.

The pale blue night lighting shifted to dark red combat lighting in an instant, bathing the fighting compartment in harsh red light. The large crew quickly woke up as the _Firestorm's Fury_ shook yet again, something _massive_ was approaching.

"What's the situation, ma'am?" Sergeant Major Arna Decdas, the Talon's engineer as well as the tank's XO asked groggily as he woke up.

"We're about to come under attack! Guns, give me an illumination round!" Capigius ordered sharply.

"You sure ma'am?" Decdas asked confused as the tank shook again.

"Positive, something is causing the tank to shake!" Capigius replied.

"Ma'am! Major thermal spikes on our one!" Sergeant Juus Brulus, the Talon's gunner, said sounding alarmed.

"Show me!" Capigius ordered quickly as the holographic viewing screens that had surrounded the driver's compartment and provided the equal to vision slits for the commander came to life and switched to thermal and Capigius had a cold lump form in the pit of her stomach and felt something else that was completely unrecognizable to her that resulted in her shivering involuntarily.

The thermal spikes were dozens of meters above the ground, moving at a sustained pace towards them, the intensity at which the ground was shaking was seemingly intensifying. A feeling of dread washed over Capigius as she tried to figure out what they were, that's when the thermals spiked again.

"Whoa, big spike on thermals and...radiation? What in the name of Spirits?" Brulus said confusion evident in his voice.

Capigius calm to an unpleasant realization, they were right in a line of fire of _something_ extremely powerful. "Driver, shift it reverse us by several hundred meters. Gunner, load Bunker Buster, secondary gunners standby to engage on sight." Capigius ordered sharply before keying her radio. "Saber company! Pull back eight hundred meters, load bunker buster standby for a volley on my mark!" she ordered.

"Yes ma'am!" Her crew shouted and with a muted thunk, the tank dropped into gear and reversed. It's engine bellowing like an enraged predator, it's tracks clattered, and above them, the autoloader cycled and loaded the tremendous round and propellant charge.

"Gun up!" Brulus announced as a muted clank rang through the compartment.

"Energy spike!" Decdas screamed as the thermals went crazy and everything mostly to their right and front exploded in a cataclysmic display of fire and smoke. Dozens of icons representing friendly units vanished of the plot and the entire tank shook violently under the force of the titanic shockwave from the explosion.

"Cycle out the bunker buster, give me an illumination round! Pinchers go loud!" Capigius shouted in response as energy bolts and blue tinged projectiles began to sweep across their positions.

Moments later, twin thunderclaps shook _Firestorm's Fury_ as the 77mm Pinchers retaliated, glowing tracers arching into the night without hitting anything. A brilliant orange projectile smashed into the tank's kinetic barriers and the vehicle shook in sympathy.

"Forward kinetic barriers down twenty percent." Decdas said.

"Decdas, drop rear kinetic barriers, reroute power to forward kinetic barriers." Capigius ordered.

"Done, kinetic barriers at full power!" Decdas replied calmly.

"Thermals and night vision are useless, ma'am! Illumination up!" Brulus yelled.

"Fire!"

"Firing!" Brulus replied and with a tremendous booming roar, the massive gun tube raced back on it's mounted, hydraulics and magnetic recoil systems absorbing the hellacious recoil of the immensely powerful gun. The shell burst several kilometers down range, bathing the entire area in pale blue light.

Immediately the Talon's of Saber Company opened fire, explosions and bursts of glittering gold light erupting in the pale blue that bathed the battlefield as tremendous walkers and dozens of tanks rumbled forth. Tracers began tackling the vehicles, shields flaring into existence as they were peppered with hundreds if not thousands of bullets from mass accelerators.

In retaliation, orange and indigo energy bursts began sweeping across the infantry and felling Turians by the dozens as they sliced through shielding and armor which had no business stopping such powerful weapons.

"Bunker Buster up!" Burlus shouted as a bolt of orange energy slammed into the _Firestorm's Fury_ 's incredibly tough kinetic barriers and detonated on contact with incredible force.

"Kinetic barriers down by fifteen percent." Decdas reported calmly.

"Backtrack that shot!" Capigius ordered.

"Working on it!" Burlus said as he aimed. "Done!"

"Fire!"

"Firing!"

The tremendous round flew out of the barrel at ten galactic standard kilometers per second with a combination of mass acceleration technology and a decent sized propellant charge. Something blew out with a gold colored electric spark and a titanic explosion sent fragments in all directions for easily dozens of meters along with a tremendous plume of flame racing skyward.

"Target destroyed!"

" _Saber 2-2 is down!_ " someone shouted over the radio, the voice nearly drowned out as the Pinchers fired again.

"Target on our twelve, range eight thousand, give me a sabot!" Capigius ordered.

"Loading!" Brulus replied as his fingers danced across his haptic displays as the tank rocked _hard_ under another direct hit.

"Kinetic barriers down to twenty percent." Decdas intoned.

"Driver reverse in a serpentine pattern! On my mark, advance!" Capigius snarled as the enemy walkers fired their primary weapons again. That salvo sent the Turian line teetering towards the brink of a _rout_. The engine roared and as the tank backed up.

"Gun ready!" Brulus said as plasma cannon fire swept over the _Firestorm's Fury_.

"Kinetic barriers down to five percent, moderate damage to exterior plating sustained, minor damage to armor plating sustained."

"Decdas, drop all kinetic barriers save the forward one, I want recharge rate prioritized. Brulus, fire!" Capigius barked as the Pinchers continued to hammer out an impressive rate of fire.

"Firing!" The main cannon roared and another hostile tank erupted into fire and death as the tremendous sabot sliced through shielding and armor like it wasn't their.

" _Platoon two is gone Saber actual! We need a plan ma'am._ " The commander of Saber platoon three said as a major explosion rocked her formation.

"Affirmative, all tanks are to advance aggressively on my mark, it's our only chance to survive the assault from those spirits damned walkers." Capigius said.

" _Yes ma'am!_ "

"Brulus load sabot!" The commander ordered before the entire tank _shook_ amid an ear-rending **crash** that semi-deafened the occupants.

"Enemy ATGM nailed us! Right side forward quarter panel armor was nearly comprised! Suspension suffered minor damage, we're still combat effective!" Decdas shouted in alarm.

"Found the bastard that pegged us with the missile!" Brulus said as he highlighted the vehicle, a small walker.

Dammit all. Wait a minute, one Talon might not be able to kill it but a _company_ of them all firing on it? That probably could kill it or at the very least damage it. Plus it could likely prevent a full blown rout from occurring.

"All Saber company tanks, fire on my target on my command with bunker buster rounds! Focus your fire on this location!" Capigius ordered and she allowed herself to smile as the responses from her tankers came back over the channel, the enemy was about to get one hell of a nasty shock.

"Fire."

That simple phrase unleashed the wraith of thirteen tanks, thirteen blood red tracers howled through the air and crashed into the shields of the light walker. They flared brilliantly as one spike and six bunker busters hit within a half second of each other, the eighth bunker buster that shattered against the shields caused them to blow out with an brilliant flare of golden energy. The ninth shot slammed into the knee joint on the thirty galactic standard meter tall walker and detonated, blowing the limb apart in a satisfying display of shattered metal and composites as it exploded. The last three rounds slammed into the main body of the walker, which stopped the first two with ease but suffered heavy damage, the third and final slug punched through said damaged armor and detonated inside with tremendous force, heavy fragments of the shell itself caused noticed bulges to appear in its exterior. Explosions burst forth from the damaged vehicle, spewing plasma as it crashed to the ground with an incredibly satisfying _**boom**_.

Capigius allowed herself to grin at the sight before suddenly everything turned a brilliant blue-white as the destroyed walker suddenly _exploded_ with incredible force, simply shattering beyond any point of recognizability. Flames burst into life as the massive thermal pulse from the thing's reactor going critical washed over everything with hundreds of meters, horrific screams from dying men and women filled the air as the body gloves of their hardsuits spontaneously combusted, a roiling inferno erupting to life. Then the second part of the massive explosion hit the Turian lines with a force that appeared to be volcanic in its power and subtly trees, bushes, infantry, debris, dust, dirt, and rocks were simply swept up into the air and thrown at high velocities.

That was the breaking point, even as more beams of energy from the enemy walkers ripped through the Turian vehicles and infantry positions, along with the energy bolts and mass accelerator fire as if it was a torch taken to paper. After that explosion, those that could broke and ran. Nearly all semblance of unit cohesion having been shattered, several brave soldiers were providing what covering fire that they could but it was hopeless against what they were facing. The will to fight had fled from the soldiers and the crews of what few vehicles remained. Fear and the flight aspect of fight or flight was voicing it's will louder than the training that each soldier received and so they ran.

Capigius couldn't believe what she was seeing, the first _rout_ in possibly living memory. To her knowledge, the glorious Hierarchy military had never broken in the face of the enemy. There had likely been some close calls, most likely during the Krogan Rebellions but she had never read or heard about something as bad as this. She knew in her heart that right now she had a recipe for a slaughter, worse if those things which had the support of at least two companies of armor managed to get into their rear, the damage that they could cause before they could be taken down would be absolutely incredible and would result in easily thousands dead along with any hope of taking this planet with what they had.

That was unacceptable in every way.

Indeed, even her own company was breaking under the relentless onslaught. Something had to be done prevent this from becoming an even greater massacre. She hit the freq that would transmit across the entire the cohort, if she survived she knew that she would catch hell from her superiors but at this point it didn't matter not with quite possibly the entire expeditionary force at risk.

"FIFTH COHORT!" she roared. "REMEMBER YOUR TRAINING AND REMEMBER WHY WE FIGHT! EVEN WITH THE ODDS STACKED AGAINST US, WE WILL STILL STAND AND FIGHT EVEN THOUGH OUR INSTINCTS ARE SCREAMING AT US TO RUN! WE _HAVE_ TO STAND AND FIGHT FOR IF WE RUN LIKE DISGRACEFUL COWARDS NOT ONLY WILL OUR UNIT AND FAMILIES FOREVER BEAR THE SHAME OF US BREAKING IN COMBAT BUT WHO WILL STAND IN THE WAY OF THE ENEMY IN ORDER TO BUY TIME FOR OUR COMRADES TO ORGANIZE A COUNTER TO THIS ATTACK IF WE DON'T? IF WE DON'T OUR ENTIRE FIGHTING FORCE WILL BE AT RISK OF BEING DESTROYED UTTERLY!"

The speech had its intended effect, the Talons of Saber, Nebula, and Dagger companies all ceased their frantic retreat and they swung around. Twenty-nine Talons came about to face down the enemy and then they _advanced_ , uncaring that they were heading towards certain death.

As one, twenty-nine main guns spoke, each one hurling a lethal bunker buster with the sort of accuracy that could only be provided by VI assisted targeting, and one half companies of hostile tanks were simply shattered by the immensely powerful rounds that were designed to punch through over a dozen galactic standard meters worth of concrete and steel before detonating with enough force to do major damage to the bunker internally. Against these energy shielded tanks, they were absolute overkill as they sliced through shielding and armor with contemptuous _ease_ before detonating inside the fighting compartments. The blasts simply reduced the vehicles to unrecognizable wrecks.

That seemed to grab the enemy's attention for the distinctive warbling of lock-on alarms played in Capigius's helmet. But she had a plan already in her mind and now it was time to put into action. "5th cohort! Formation change, fire and maneuver formation alpha-niner! Dagger and Nebula companies your on the flanks while Saber is in the middle! We're going to roll right up the flank that we just hammered, force them to deal with us! After we roll up their flank we're going to try and kill as many as their walkers as possible! Execute!" She ordered.

The Talons advanced aggressively, maintaining a considerable rate of fire while flawlessly shifting their formation. The huge hulking monsters in front them continued their wanton slaughter of Turian forces but the sight of Talon tanks on the offensive seemed to reinvigorate the units that had routed. They began to remember their training and began to do a crawling tactical withdrawal.

From the enemy walkers, missiles by the dozen launched. They spiraled upwards with incredible speed, the targeting systems the guided them selecting various Talons which were continuing to pick off enemy tanks with ease. Return fire from the remaining tanks came shrieking towards the Turians, several enemy shots managed to connect as well as penetrate the thick armor and almost immediately three Talons came to a violent halt as they exploded into fire and smoke, in one case the hydrogen fuel cells ignited and the explosion rendered the tank's front completely unrecognizable, while another tank had the ammunition stowage for it's main gun cook off sending tremendous gouts of flame erupting in all directions as the safety measures engaged. Another Talon, _Dragon Queen_ , had it's left sponson completely mangled by an enemy shot, undoubtedly killing anyone who had been inside it as well as detonating it's stockpiled ammunition for it's Pincher's.

With a rattling roar, artillery made its presence known on the battlefield, shells shrieked down from the sky, the ground erupted in the hostile's formation with incredible force. Shrapnel and shells setting shields aglow with energy as they repelled the power of the rounds. From the largest Walker, lances of light leaped upwards and began to intercept some of the shells but their was simply too many shells streaming in from friendly guns, but regardless the lasers fired.

One enemy tank took a direct hit, the shields offered no resistance and shell munched past armor with ease. When it detonated, the tank looked like it had been struck by a bomb as it was completely unrecognizable.

Then the enemy missiles reached the apex of their trajectory, nosed over and promptly dove on the Turian tanks which promptly shifted kinetic barriers strength to their top armor facing. The lethal warheads crashed into the kinetic barriers causing them to flare brilliantly into existence as they exploded against them. But each tank had at least two such warheads targeting them with some having even _three_ going at them.

The second set of missiles crashed into the tanks, pushing their kinetic barriers to their limits as the stresses from the warheads high kinetic energy due to their velocity was then amplified when the warheads exploded. But in the case of several tanks, the kinetic barriers sputtered and died. For two of them this had lethal results, one tank lurched to one side and drastically lost speed after a missile punched through top armor with ease and detonated inside the crew compartment.

The other tank had it's forward section blown apart as the missile knifed through the upper hull armor like paper before detonating among the hydrogen cells that powered the tank. It came to a groaning halt. The forward part of it's hull and suspension shattered beyond any recognition or hope of repair.

The third tank that had such a missile targeted was _Firestorm's Fury_. The right sponson suffered a direct hit from the warhead where it exploded.

Capigius gasped in pain as the shockwave and noise from the tremendous explosion rocked her tank to its core. A bulkhead partially caved and spalling ripped through the primary crew compartment, Decdas wailed in mortal agony as his torso was laid open by a piece of shrapnel that sliced through his kinetic barriers and armor like paper causing an eruption of blue blood to spray wildly as he slumped in his harness screaming.

All four of the ball turret gunners who sat in small pulpits against the left and right bulkheads of the crew compartment were thoroughly shredded by the spalling or were killed by the concussive force of the blast that had ripped the sponson asunder.

Ears ringing and alarms blaring, damage reports flashing across one of her screens. Capigius snarled in response, shouting an order. The main gun roared the report being close to deafening in its scope, the thunder clap pounding in her chest. Through the flickering holographic displays, an enemy tank erupted like a volcano.

Moments later _Firestorm's Fury_ shuddered under hammering impacts as plasma bolts from a plasma cannon swept across the tank's frontal glacis, burning holes in the exterior plating and beginning to chip away at the armor underneath it. Despite her pain, Capigius toggled the VI to take control of the ball turrets and gave the order for the secondary gunner to open fire with the RWS on top as well as the missile launchers. The weapons began rattling as the onboard VI and the gunner found targets and opened fire, mass accelerator fire, grenades, and a quartet of missiles shrieked forth from the Talon. The missiles never reached their targets as they were punched out of existence by enemy APSes but then again, Capigius didn't care if they did or not. It added another thing that the hostile tankers had to worry about besides the Talons.

That threat become significantly reduced when a lethal orange beam swept over the remains of Nebula Company and blew most of the remaining tanks apart, immolating their crews with ease. Reducing the powerful machines of war to slag.

But it was still a potent threat in to the hostiles. Capigius shouted something and as one the remaining tanks of the 5th Cohort fired. Their target, another enemy walker had it's shields blow out spectacularly before having it's superstructure and limbs sliced to pieces as bunker busters tore them apart. The vehicle's sundered form crashed to the ground flames roaring upwards from dozens of wounds.

 _ **CRA-OOM!**_

It happened so fast that Capigius at first couldn't decipher what had happened as something made her vision go white. When it slowly came back, this time when she could see again, she was certain that she was in hell. The crew compartment for _Firestorm's Fury_ was mangled beyond recognizability, blue blood was splattered everywhere. To her left was the faint of sound of screaming, agonized screaming. She looked and wished she hadn't, something had thrown pieces of debris and shrapnel up into Brulus's chest and had amputated his right arm and nearly amputated his left leg. Blood streaming down his front and from the mangled limb and stump in copious amounts.

From what she could see, the Driver had been pulverized by something that had punched through the frontal armor with ease before exploding. Spalling had ravaged the compartment, the secondary gunner had been decapitated in an extremely bloody way, blood poured down his front and was likely pooling in his chair.

That's when the pain hit, a blindly hot searing pain in it's intensity that suffused her entire being in its entirety. The crackle that started to fill the compartment followed by an acrid stench only proved her fears as the Talon began to brew up the flames from its ruptured hydrogen cells rapidly consuming vehicle.

Capigius screamed in agony as the flames attacked her body, eating away at her hardsuit's body glove and searing what was beneath. Blackness flitted at her vision as the searing heat and blood loss began to get to her. The last of her coherent thoughts before blackness swallowed her was of her family.

* * *

 **0225 Hours, February 9th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Six V/A SF-110 Phalanx Fighters**

Flying Officer Teus Phonion had to admit, fighting an enemy that was technologically superior to you was equal parts exhilarating and terrifying. Particularly when the enemy could build a fighter that _vastly_ outclassed the standard fighter of the Expeditionary Forces, the Void-Atmosphere Strike-Fighter one-one-oh.

That said, this enemy offensive was a complete and utter surprise. If what he had heard was true, the enemy had broken through, with the units in the area of the breakthrough reeling and on the verge of routing when three companies of Talons counter-attacked. Which bought enough time for the rout to not occur but for a somewhat organized retreat to occur while also allowing for the reshuffling of units in order to meet this threat.

Not to mention calling for air support, thus Viper Flight was howling through the frigid sky at low altitude as they raced towards their engagement point. Their fighters laiden with heavy air-to-ground missiles in order to have a chance at destroying the enemy ground vehicles.

" _Large number of ground contacts Actual, I don't think that our payload is going to cut it._ " Viper three said, her voice filled with worry.

" _Affirmative, I agree three. We don't have the firepower to really make a dent. Spirits, look at the size of those walkers!_ " Viper Actual replied.

" _Agreed Actual, those things are_ huge _. I didn't think it was possible to build such a thing._ " Viper Six said.

"What do we hit sir?" Phonion asked.

" _I doubt we'll make a dent in those walkers. Target the tanks._ " Viper Actual replied.

"Roger that." Phonion replied as he selected his AGMs, cursing the fact that they didn't have Disruptor warheads. Just good old HEAT munitions, but considering how enemy shields appeared to work, he honestly doubted that they had a chance at knocking out the enemy tanks.

" _Weapon bays open. Five seconds to release point. Five, four, three, two, one, release!_ " Viper actual said.

Phonion hit the weapon release and his fighter shuddered as four missiles were disgorged from the craft's main weapon bay and two dropped off the wings, their engines igniting and propelling the lethal warheads forward.

" _Strike complete, Viper flight let's go home before enemy fighters or anti-aircraft vehicles engage us._ " Viper actual said, pitching his fighter up and away from the front.

Phonion grunted as he followed maneuver, cursing the fact that he was still a little tired and thus had lagged behind his wingman slightly. Suddenly an explosion rocked Viper Actual and Viper Two, setting their kinetic barriers aglow as they repelled the kinetic force from the explosions. Then the two fighters exploded as another missile connected with them and simply blew the aircrafts apart in a vibrant display of shattered composites, igniting fuel, and fire. The remains arching down away. Neither pilot managed to eject from his dead plane.

" _What the Spirits?! RWR showed no active radars! How did they do that?!_ " Viper Three shouted in dismay.

"Viper flight, get to the deck!" Phonion roared as he rolled his fighter down towards the deck, dropping countermeasures as he did so. The other Phalanx fighters doing the same, dropping their own countermeasures and diving towards safety.

" _Someone needs to alert command and tell them we've figured out why fighter patrols have gone missing. They aren't using element zero seeker heads which means that most of our countermeasure systems are useless._ " Viper Four said, sounding shocked and alarmed at what just happened.

"Four, the implications that you just revealed are quite disturbing. We know that we are out-classed in the fighter department but now we know that probably the majority of our losses that have occurred happened not because of fighters but because they ran across a SAM site that they had no idea was there until they either sighted the missile or it hit them." Phonion said morbidly.

" _Spirits, your right five. It also explains why fighters would sometimes limp home shot to hell._ " Three replied.

"Yeah, it doesn't paint a pretty picture when you think about it. We're too reliant on element zero, thus unprepared to fight opponents who don't make as extensive usage of element zero as we do. Plus as we've learned, even though they don't use element zero it doesn't mean that they are useless like we've all foolishly assumed for who knows how many centuries." Phonion said as he adjusted his grip on the stick.

" _Five, the points your bringing up are making an absolutely disturbing amount of sense. We likely have gotten compliant without us realizing it._ " Four growled out.

The four fighter pilots continued on in silence as they thought about how notions that had been in place for centuries about how Mass Effect was superior to nearly every other form of technology had been turned upside down. The effects that this conflict would have, regardless of its outcome would be felt for centuries to come, it really wasn't a pleasant thought.

Several minutes later, Viper Three came over the freq. " _Command has been notified of the heavy SAM presence. They are not happy about it, flights are already being recalled so that they can be reconfigured for SEAD work. I pity those poor bastards, going to sniff out SAM sites that are likely using missiles with active homing, they toggle their search/acquisition radars on just long enough to get a lock, they fire the missiles and then shut their radars down. We're looking at just a few seconds of those radars being online._ "

"Clever bastards." Phonion remarked as he realized just how hard it would be for the SEAD planes to do their job. Only a few seconds to lock on and fire a missile, then hope that it manages to get on the correct bearing before the radar shuts down. The chances of success that they would have against such a threat were rather low, thus it meant that they would have to do it the old fashioned way. Which was relying on jammers, locating the radar sites and then bombing them while probably braving flak all the way in.

" _Your right five, very clever indeed. The SEAD pilots are going to be in for a very rough day then._ " Three replied.

" _Spirits, that would mean that the SEAD pilots have no idea on what they are getting into then._ " Four remarked as the enormity of just how clever the bastards were when it came to operating their SAMs sank in. " _How will they take out the SAMs then?_ "

" _Probably the old fashioned way four, they trust their jammers and they find the sites the hard way and then bomb them. Now they'll have to locate these SAM sites while dealing with ack-ack most likely, I can imagine that for most of them that will be a one-way trip._ " Three said.

" _Plus they'll likely have to deal with fighters. We didn't see any, but after our strike I would be surprised if they didn't show up and we all know how they munch on our fighters like a Krogan at an all-you-can-eat buffet with it's favorite food._ " Six added.

There was a round of affirmatives on that front, human fighters were extremely fast and extremely maneuverable despite not using element zero. Not to mention deadly with their predominant usage of missiles, including BVR monsters that far and away outclassed anything the Hierarchy had in terms of missiles. Plus the bastards were damn near impossible to spot on radar until it was far too late. It was just another thing that was against them in a campaign that seemed to be really fucking them over and wasn't afraid to punches on them.

Regardless, if there was one thing that the Turians excelled at, it was adapting to new situations while under pressure. The thing was however, the enemy was incredibly powerful and when they applied pressure they did so hard and fast, typically with overwhelming force as well. That seemed to be a common theme with their opponents, hit them hard and send them reeling, then before they could recover hit them again and again until finally broke as the amount of stress from ludicrous firepower became too much for their opponents to handle.

Not only that, it seemed that the vast majority of their equipment was geared towards survivability as well as durability. Even the militia armor seemed to be built well enough to take at least one hit from a plasma bolt. At least that was part of the rumors that he had heard about the enemy equipment.

" _Airbase two-niner-five. This is Viper flight, requesting permission to land. Be advised, Viper actual and Viper two have both been shot down by enemy SAMs, assumed active radar homing capability, thus all they need to do is acquire the target and the missile will do the rest._ " Viper three said.

" _Affirmative on the loss of Viper Actual and Viper Two, as well as the SAM capability Viper Three. However I cannot clear you for landing at this time, the runway is currently occupied by multiple flights preparing to commence their take-off roll. Maintain holding pattern at six thousand meters, on course two-five-zero._ " ATC reported back.

" _Roger ATC, assuming holding pattern now._ " Viper Three replied as he brought the remains of Viper flight up to the altitude required as well as shifting course and heading several kilometers out away from the field before beginning to circle a designated point.

Below them on the makeshift airfield, several flights of Phalanxes taxied from the flight line and to the runway, where they began to do their takeoff rolls, the heavily armed craft sluggishly accelerating down the runway before clawing into the air. Their engine exhausts glowing a brilliant blue-white as they propelled the fighters forward.

Phonion watched as the fighters climbed into the heavens, gaining speed and altitude with every second. The individual formations becoming obvious as those small ships rose ever upwards. He knew in his heart however that the majority of those pilots weren't going to be returning. Particularly considering the enemy air defenses were pretty nasty and the fact that enemy fighters were bound to be a threat now.

Finally the tower came back on. " _Viper flight, your cleared to land._ "

" _Roger tower, we're coming in._ " Viper Three said as the Phalanxes came back around, deploying their landing gear before landing.

Phonion went through the landing procedure on pure instinct. Dropping his flaps, adjusting the mass effect core settings, deploying the landing gear, flaring out for landing while descending, when he felt the jittering _thump_ of the gear hitting the ground he engaged his fighter's thrust reversers which quickly arrested forward motion.

Then by only applying a little throttle, he guided his Phalanx over to the flight line, once his fighter had stopped, the brakes were applied and the ground crew had put the tire chocks in place, he disconnected his oxygen mask, shutdown his engines, undid his crash restraints, and popped his canopy.

Just as the canopy started to rise, the ground crew was already putting a ladder in place to allow him to get down. The moment his feet hit the ground, he spotted his _de facto_ flight lead dismounting from her own ride.

Phonion strode over to her as she headed towards the pilot's briefing room. They got their about the sametime, she was most certainly looked down. "Flight Lieutenant Linnis, what's the plan?" Phonion asked his ranking officer, Paevea Linnis, as he saluted.

"At ease Flying Officer," Linnis replied after returning the salute. "The plan right now is simply getting some coffee and having our craft rearmed and refueled before going out and hitting the enemy again but we'll likely be put on SEAD duty however." she said.

Phonion felt his mandibles flare in shock and surprise. He had known that they were going to be heading out again to hit enemy ground positions again but being put on SEAD duty was effectively a suicide mission. The enemy used a combination of radar guided SAMs and laser armed SPAAGs. But for all he knew, the enemy could also use MANPADs that used thermal tracking, which meant that they could get blindsided by a surprise missile.

"Great, please tell me that at the very least we'll have jammers. Because otherwise we will basically have to hug the ground in order to have a chance at destroying enemy air defenses." Phonion grumbled, he loved serving the Turian Hierarchy as much as any good Turian did, but he also liked living too.

"Not certain on that Flying Officer, for all we know, we could wind up flying combat air patrol. But if we do, I am going to get us those jammers, if only so that we don't have to worry about the SAMs and enemy BVR missiles. That said, keep your wits about you while we are out on missions. We get jumped by enemy fighters, we are most certainly at a disadvantage." Linnis replied, shaking her head.

 _That's a Spirits-damned understatement if there ever was one._ Phonion thought bitterly as he remembered watching gun camera footage of enemy fighters dancing around Phalanx fighters with incredible ease. The inherently poor aerodynamic qualities of Phalanx was one of the things that worked against them in a dogfight, ironically so did the installed Mass Effect core. Mainly because of fluid dynamics, if they altered their mass too much, the fighter would go out of control.

Such was the drawback of a fighter that had been designed to primarily operate in the void alongside the Besa Interceptor that the fleet used with usage in atmosphere being a secondary consideration. Now though, that design decision was proving to be a poor decision for it had cost Spirits only knew how many pilots their lives. The more that he thought about it, the more that Phonion became convinced that if they had even a single squadron of Asari made _Valhawk_ class Multirole fighters which unlike the Phalanx and Besa classes were primarily designed for use in atmosphere.

Some ten minutes later, the airbase CO came to where the surviving pilots of Viper flight were resting and preparing for their next sortie. "Viper Flight is rearmed and refueled." he said and then he handed Linnis a OSD. "Your assignment is to hit an enemy SAM battery at grid-square A9K-25947-G45, it's been tearing the hell out of our fighters that are trying to hit those massive walkers that the enemy is using." He said.

"Great, please tell me we got ECM pods otherwise it's a suicide mission for not only myself but the fliers under my command." Linnis said.

"We got those weird wingtip variants on in-place of your wingtip SRAAMs, thus you got double the jamming capability that you normally would on a mission such as this, your wing hardpoints have two Arrow SRAAMs apiece, and finally your internal bay has two Shadow AGMs, and four 500-kilogram gravity bombs. It's the least we can do." The CO said.

Linnis nodded. "Alright, that works." she then turned and faced the other members of her flight. "Viper flight! We're moving out, man your ships and prepare for launch." she roared.

Phonion leaped to his feet and sprinted to his fighter, strapping his helmet on as he did so. Once he got to his Phalanx he did a quick walkaround and satisfied with the condition of his plane, climbed up the boarding ladder and began to start the craft up.

 _Internal power online, fuel pumps primed, mass effect core coming online, engaging engines._ Phonion thought to himself as he ran through the pre-flight checklist. The engines emitting a low whine as they spooled up to their idle power setting. After doing that he strapped himself into his seat, so that if he ejected he didn't fall out of the stupid thing.

He then toggled the control and the canopy came down. With a subtle hiss, it formed a hermetic seal. Finally he donned his oxygen mask and initiated the system, with a quiet _hiss_ , the Phalanx's onboard life support engaged and thus feeding him a steady stream of air.

" _Tower, Viper Flight, requesting permission to taxi to runway two-seven-right._ " Linnis said.

" _Viper Flight, Tower, permission granted to taxi to runway two-seven-right. Have a nice flight._ " Tower replied.

 _Spirits, this bastard doesn't know what sort of shit we're going to be dealing with since we're hauling SEAD instead of mud._ Phonion thought bitterly and judging by the barely audible grumbles, it was something that his squadron mates agreed on.

Linnis wasn't amused but she remained professional but her tone carried the tone of someone who was rather unhappy. " _Affirmative Tower, Viper Flight commencing taxi. Don't worry, we'll shoot some of the bastards for you._ " she said.

Now he watched as his fellow pilots disengaged their brakes one after another and began to taxi. After the plane on his right disengaged brakes and began rolling, he counted to three and then did the same thing. He brought his fighter around and started taxiing towards the runway. With impeccable timing the planes, lineup at the end of the runway, ready to commence their rolls.

" _Tower, Viper Flight requesting permission to commence take-off rolls._ " Linnis asked.

" _Viper Flight, Tower, permission granted to commence take-off rolls_ " ATC replied in a calm tone.

Engines howled and exhausts glowed as the planes of Viper Flight began to sluggishly accelerate. Even with Mass Effect, the Phalanx always had been a little sluggish on it's takeoff rolls when it was carrying a mission load like this, that was partly because mass lightening was prohibited on normal take-off rolls.

He pulled back on the stick and the fighter slowly lumbered into the air and began clawing upwards into the heavens, airspeed steadily increasing as did altitude. " _Viper Flight, make your altitude fifteen thousand. Set your jammers to passive defensive mode after we reach three thousand meters._ " Linnis ordered as they passed one thousand meters.

"Roger boss." Phonion replied as he linked his fighter into the battle net. It was bad, multiple flights of Phalanxes and the occasional flight of Besas were committed on their runs as indicated by the dark blue triangles that was on the battle map, trying to blot enemy ground units out of existence but he could clearly see several red triangles on the map, which represented enemy fighters. Sharp green and yellow lines were streaking across the map, representing friendly and enemy missiles respectively. The ground situation appeared to be just as bad, for the blue squares and dots that represented friendly vehicles and infantry were getting pushed back by hostile ground units marked in orange.

What was worrying however was the rate that Phalanxes and Besas were dropping off the map. It was obvious that the enemy SAMs, ack-ack, and fighters were reaping heavy casualties on friendly fighters. That complicated matters significantly, he wasn't to worried about the SAMs and ack-ack but he was incredibly worried about the enemy fighters. Mainly because they made the Phalanx and Besa look like utter crap but he had a feeling that they probably couldn't survive a burst from the cannons that the Phalanx mounted, just too many shells being launched at high velocity.

But he wasn't sure how well his missiles would perform against human fighters either. Regardless, he did prepare himself for the fact that he could in fact die today. Mainly because of what they were going to be dealing with, it was something that all soldiers would face at the some point during a combat tour, which was dying in the line of duty.

Shortly after they climbed past the indicated altitude to commence jamming. Linnis came back on the radio. " _Viper Flight, you ready for this?_ " she asked.

Phonion took a deep breath in order to steady his nerves and calm himself. "I am ma'am, I'll follow you to hell and back." he said.

" _I am ready to go._ " Viper Four replied curtly.

" _Let's go ma'am._ " Viper Six added with some glee.

" _Punch it._ " Linnis said and seemingly as one, the fighters engaged their afterburners. The Phalanx fighter roared with thunderous glee as it sucked down several hundred pounds of fuel in an instant. The acceleration pushed him back into his seat as the fighter quickly ripped past the sound barrier, in the process a cone of condensation formed around the craft for a brief moment before being left behind by the supersonic fighters.

" _I am getting some targets radiating. Working to identify them._ " Viper Four said several minutes later.

" _I will admit, just by looking at the information coming in from the net, it's getting pretty busy._ " Viper six said.

"No kidding, Six, the amount of hostile planes and ground targets that I am seeing is rather insane." Phonion replied.

" _I just about managed to lock down those targets that are radiating. They are most certainly SAM sites, maybe SPAAGs or Ack-Ack emplacements. Several more targets are radiating, but I can't lock them down yet._ " Four piped up.

" _Four, have those SAM sites acquired us?_ " Linnis asked.

" _Negative ma'am, but they probably have a general idea of where we are due to our jamming. So things are likely about to get interesting for us. I recommend getting ready to set our jammers on active defensive jamming soon._ " Four replied.

That's when something caught Phonion's eye, it was the way that the enemy jets were maneuvering. There was several taking defensive maneuvers but for the most part the majority of the hostile jets appeared to be on bombing runs. But at least eight of the contacts were loitering about two hundred twenty kilometers behind the front lines, beyond the range of all but their heaviest SAMs and AAMs. Plus these radar contacts were absolutely tiny and could easily be mistaken for birds, if they weren't flying at some thirty-thousand meters and at least twice speed of sound.

"Heads up! I got a radar tally on possible enemy air superiority fighters!" Phonion announced.

" _Your shitting me._ " Linnis exclaimed, dread seeping into her voice.

"I wish I was ma'am. They are flying at the altitude that all confirmed encounters with them had them started the engagement with friendlies at. Velocity appears to be the same as well, but no wonder that our guys have a hard time spotting them. These things are absolutely tiny on radar." Phonion replied, marking the contacts which started flashing gold.

" _Spirits_ " Viper Four said in a long suffering tone.

" _Three, I think that thanks to those fighters, going in the old fashion way is out of the question. Dive-bombing those SAM positions is going to be guaranteed suicide with those fighters on overwatch. We're going to have to use our SEAD missiles on the SAM sites and our bombs on enemy ground units._ " Six said calmly.

Silence reigned for several seconds before Linnis replied. " _Your right, so much for this being a simple affair. Alright, keep your wits about you, for we are going in._ "

Phonion began calmly sweeping his head from side-to-side as he scanned the skies, but considering the darkness, it would be better to rely on his radar than his eyes. But even at night, his eyes were his best friend for spotting stuff. Plus not even a machine could beat the instincts of a pilot.

"I got SAMs, multiple hostile radars have light up and missiles are engaging friendly units. I am thinking that I am seeing a couple of those Spirits-damned SPAAGs with their damned lasers." Phonion said as he looked at the various radiating sources on an MFD.

" _Prioritize the SPAAGs, those weapons ignore kinetic barriers. The more of those we destroy the easier our lives become._ " Linnis ordered calmly.

Phonion nodded in response, that made sense. Kill the biggest threats first and then your life became much, much easier. Of course, the SAMs and SPAAGs weren't the biggest threat by any stretch of the imagination. The biggest threat were in his opinion those lethal air superiority birds which meant that he had to keep an eye on them and get ready to push his fighter to the absolute limit of it's safety envelope which was something that he hadn't done before.

He brought his targeting brackets down onto an enemy SPAAG and the distinct lock on tone played in his ears. A distinctive growling the grew in intensity, the longer that the brackets were locked, indicating the missile was getting a hit percentage with each passing moment. The warbling tone reached a fever pitch, the missile begging to let loose.

"Viper Five, Arrow! Arrow!" Phonion called out, pulling the trigger, from his fighter's bay dropped a missile. It's engine engaged and shrieked into the darkness, it's glowing blue thruster rapidly shrinking into a tiny dot as it accelerated towards it target.

His gaze flicked to the radar screen, the tiny dots that represented human air superiority fighters still hadn't moved from their positions despite the fact that Turian fighters were beginning to make their attack runs on the main breakthrough. Crackling green energy beams and missiles shrieked upward while rockets, bombs, and missiles came down.

From the other fighters of Viper flight, missiles dropped away and began to do a full burn towards their targets. Still, something felt off about this whole situation, those air superiority fighters could butcher friendly fighters with incredible ease.

"Leader, something feels wrong. Those enemy air superiority birds aren't moving towards us, this feels like a setup!" Phonion said quickly.

" _Your right, I don't like this either. All Viper planes, hit a 2nd target with your SEAD missiles and then find something to dump your bombs on._ " Linnis said.

That made sense to Phonion, still he glanced at his radar screen again just to double check to see if those air superiority fighters were moving towards them. To his surprise they weren't, but immediately afterward however, something caught his eyes that screamed _trouble_. Eight contacts about the size of a _Besa_ class fighter on radar were weaving through friendly fighters with ease and shooting them down with ease as well. Eyes widening he gave his radar screen a closer look and then with horror realized that _two_ more such contacts were diving upon them Viper Flight with a considerable speed and altitude advantage.

He immediately snapped his gaze up and spotted two absolutely _immense_ forms, each easily eighty galactic standard meters long diving down upon them like wolves and they were the prey. "Viper flight break!" Phonion shouted in alarm as his RWR blared in his helmet as the enemy fighters painted him with their radar, effortlessly burning through the passive jamming. Instinct took over, in an instant he set the ECM pods to active defensive jamming. Then he manipulated his fighter's mass and pulled a maneuver that gave the laws of physics a pair of massive middle fingers.

He cut his engines to idle and pushed forward on the stick, his fighter entering a descending front flip. The craft went through two full revolutions in a matter of seconds, the maneuver would've left most rookies barfing in their helmet, as the fighter began its third flip, Phonion acted. He remanipulated his fighter's mass, applied full thrust and entered a tight descending spiral.

Right behind him, in a more conventional maneuver came Viper Six. Above them however, Viper flight was like lambs to the slaughter. Linnis was shot down first, two missiles slamming her fighter in a one two punch, the twin gold-white flashes of human plasma explosives practically vaporizing her Phalanx.

Viper four got a missile off, but it didn't matter because the shot missed. He then made a frantic attempt to dive away from the enemy fighters. He never made it, for another enemy missile slammed into his fighter and detonated in the blinding flash of plasma. The left wing and a sizeable portion of fuselage simply boiled or melted away. The fighter spun down wards flames spewing from it's wound, glowing like a blinding torch in the darkness of the night.

" _Where are they five?!_ " Six cried out in panic.

"I am looking for them! Spirits, they are _fast_!" Phonion said as he wheeled fighter around and spotted the massive shapes swinging towards them. "Tally, two bandits on our eight!" he shouted.

" _Let's get em!_ " Six said.

"Agreed, follow my lead!" Phonion said before swinging his fighter around and engaging his afterburners racing towards the big shapes that were coming out of their dives and wheeling around at a sedate pace to setup a head-on pass. He glanced at the range indicators, just under six klicks, it was a little long for gunfire. But it would give them something to think about, thus without thought he brings the targeting brackets onto the enemy flight leader and pulls the trigger. "Viper Five, Drive, Drive, Drive!"

The L-280, a 2.5-meter long, 37mm caliber Mass Accelerator cannons that are used in the Phalanx are finicky pieces of crap that have always had problems that Armax Arsenal hadn't been able to iron out completely. But when they work, by the spirits the do they work!

 _ **BAB-BAB-BAB-BAB-BAM!**_ The sustained burst from the four monstrous cannons makes the whole fighter shake with effort but the blinding blue streaks that tear from just under the nose of Phonion's fighter and cleave through the night catch the hostile off guard. Rounds smash against a glittering gold energy shield which manages to hold for three seconds before shattering in a thunderstorm of energy.

The predictable occurs immediately afterward. Even at this range, Phonion could see as his rounds tear great chunks away from the fighter, exterior cosmetic plating getting flayed away from the plane. One round punches straight through the center of the windscreen and red explodes inside the canopy leaving little doubt about what happened to the pilot, flames erupt from the plane's right wing as most of the left wing is ripped away. The fighter simply entered a rapid tumble, shredded almost beyond recognition.

Despite himself, Phonion whooped gleefully. "That's a kill!" he barked as the remaining enemy fighter retaliated. Bolts of indigo fire split the darkness of the night like an omni-blade through flesh, Phonion skidded his fighter hard to the right evading the twin streams of plasma fire.

Viper Six wasn't as lucky, he screamed over the radio before it dissolved into white noise. Phonion glanced back over his shoulder and spotted Six's slagged coffin, trailing flames and smoke descend out of control towards the ground, breaking apart in midair. That was the breaking point, Phonion snarled in anger.

They screamed towards merge, the two craft snapping onto their wingtips and blazing past each other with bare centimeters to spare. Phonion counted to ten then manipulated his element zero core and put the aircraft through a one hundred eighty degree backflip and then hit the afterburners, remanipulating his fighter's mass as he did so. The gee-forces slammed him into his seat and several alerts popped up on his HUD indicating major stress damage on the skeleton of the plane.

The crew chief likely wasn't going to be happy with him, considering the abuse he had just given the airframe. But the results were well worth it, for it gave him this beautiful shot at the hostile's dorsal side, however something made him hold his fire for about two seconds.. Mainly it was the _three_ massive plumes of flame that the craft was standing on and climbing rapidly into the heavens. No fighter that he knew of had three engines nor did it move with the speed and grace that this bird did.

He shook himself out of his stupor and brought the brackets up on to the enemy plane and pulled the trigger. The mass accelerators roared their fury, the shields flared brilliantly before failing under the relentless barrage. Almost immediately afterward flames exploded into existence around the craft's fluslage then moments later one of the engines tore itself apart in a violent conflagration. The entirety of right wing was ripped away and the craft entered a wild tumble, streaming flames and smoke as it plunged from the sky. With a vibrant flash, the canopy disintegrated and the crew was thrown into the air riding on their ejection seats which were support on a pillar of flame.

Before he even had a chance to even call out his second kill, another alarm screamed at him as another enemy jet, again one of those massive birds came screaming at him from out of the darkness. Plasma screaming towards his fighter, he snap rolled away from the lethal energy bursts but several punched into his kinetic barriers and alarms wailed as more areas on the plane flashes from a cool blue to various shades of yellow, orange, red, and black indicating damage and how severe it was.

Phonion gapped in shock after glancing at the damage, severe heat stresses combined with the structural stresses meant that his plane was quite literally at risk of breaking apart in midair. He rolled his fighter harshly diving for the deck. He acquired the enemy fighter climbing and trying to set up for another attack run.

He pitched up and turned hard in an attempt to get inside his opponents turn. He couldn't line up a gun shot, for the weapons had been disabled by the computer for the recoil could, quite literally shake his battered plane apart. Which left him with one choice, his missiles. The targeting system began scanning the skies, the piper sedately gliding onto the enemy plane and the lock-on alarm playing in his ears.

"Viper five, Slash Two, Slash Two!" Phonion called out before firing two missiles, both missiles ripped away with supersonic cracks as they rapidly accelerated to their top speed.

The enemy fighter rolled into the missiles and countermeasures burst from the craft's underbelly. Almost immediately the missiles lost lock and went for the countermeasures. _Dammit!_ Phonion thought before swearing as his own RWR wailed in his helmet.

His instinctual snap roll followed by the harsh turn that he did towards the source probably saved his life. There was an explosion that seemed to go off right behind him followed immediately by the whole fighter shaking violently and the master boards light up with damage and fire alarms. He glanced over his shoulder as he bird began to spiral downwards and saw his fighter was severely on fire.

He reached to the sides of his seat and yanked the handles. The canopy ripped itself apart as the precisely sized and placed explosive charges blew. A split-second later with a shrieking roar, the rocket motor fired and hurled him out of his dying craft. He separated from his seat with a grunt and then moments later the parachute deployed and he found himself drifting sedately out of the sky, below him his fighter disintegrated as the stresses became too much for it's tortured airframe to handle.

Phonion couldn't help but sigh as he drifted downwards. Viper Flight was gone with barely anything done to show for it and now he knew for a fact that just to match what he assumed was their primary strike fighter, it would require friendly pilots to abuse the absolute hell out of their fighters.

Above him, engines roared and he caught a glimpse of something big flying over the battlefield. It was sharply angled and bulky, moving with the grace of a brick through the heavens. But he couldn't identify it for certain, was it one of those dropships?

* * *

 **0345 Hours, February 9th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi**

 **Pelican Alpha-Four-Seven-Niner**

"I am against this, sir. How can we even trust them?" Fred asked over the radio via a private comm as he looked at the three Turians who were sitting across from him.

" _I don't like it either son, but considering that this is our best chance to end this conflict with as little unnecessary bloodshed as possible._ " Williams said with some obvious tripediation in his voice.

"I understand sir." Fred said into his helmet mic. At the moment he was breathing pure oxygen and for good reason. Himself, Ash and Mark, plus the two Turian Cabal members as well as _Grand General Kuril_ , were getting ready for insertion behind enemy lines. Not just any insertion though, this was going to be a High Altitude Low Opening jump, better known as a HALO Jump.

"It's been ages since I've done a HALO jump. I am still certified on jumps but it's been awhile since I've done one." Kuril said in a firm and professional tone that brokered no argument.

"Five minutes to drop!" The loadmaster shouted and dull red light suffused the compartment. That was their cue, the three Turians and the three Spartans stood up.

Fred looked at Grand General Kuril and sighed, it probably wouldn't do any good but he had to try. "General, this is your last chance to back out." he said.

"It was my fault that I didn't setup the proper precautions to prevent this disaster from occurring. The least I can do is help fix my mess, besides I am amazed that Palevan Military Command responded with the quickness that it did. Regardless, there's a chance that this can go wrong." Kuril said.

"I understand General, it's just the last time that I saw an officer of your rank taking part in a major combat op was way back during the Raid on Reach some seventy years ago. A Vice Admiral believe it or not. It's just different, that's all." Fred replied as he ran an equipment check.

One MA7A Plasma Rifle, about a dozen energy cells for the weapon, an M6L Magnum and two spare magazines, standard issue hardlight bayonet, a combat knife, six M11C Plasma Grenades, two flashbangs, one smoke grenade, a personal trauma kit, and his Spartan Laser. It wasn't much, but it would have to do in this case.

He looked at the others and nodded, Ash had a shotgun and Mark had a Battle Rifle plus a sidearm, grenades, a bayonet, a combat knife, a plasma saber, and a personal trauma kit. Kuril, Diia, and Camiso Tersis all had hardsuits, plus a mixture of various Turian weaponry. That said, the information on biotics was interesting and considering what he had seen and heard about made quite a bit of sense. The various ezero incidents that happened over the past few years had come to mind and he found himself wondering how biotics would change humanity.

The moment lasted only very briefly but it was something that Fred realized he would have to think about after this mission.

With a the low whirling of hydraulics and motors, the back ramp lowered and the harsh frigid air that was at this high of an altitude blasted into the compartment and swirled around quickly cooling it.

"Ten seconds!" The loadmaster called out.

Fred felt a reassuring calm wash over him. He mentally reviewed the plan, the first part of the operation involved a HALO jump behind enemy lines, then they would infiltrate the enemy command post, incapacitate everyone in their path, then arrest High General Lanus or if he resisted with sufficient force kill him, Kuril would then send the stand down order and Williams would send a message ordering Battle Group Autumn to not come in all guns blazing.

The light flashed green and Fred took two massive strides and jumped out of the Pelican and into the air. He promptly streamlined himself and began his descent towards the ground. All he could hear as he hurtled downward was his own breathing and sound of air rushing past his hardsuit. On his motion radar he could see multiple little dots that represented his team forming up into a rough vee next to him.

He had to admit, Shanxi was beautiful up here. The planet was still rough and treacherous, in some weird way it reminded him of Reach. Only with less forests and more plains, but it didn't reduce the planet's ruggedness at all. Maybe it was the fact that Shanxi reminded him of Reach that he liked living here, he did consider Reach his homeworld after all. Hell, all of the Spartan-IIs, both living and dead considered Reach to their homeworld.

That actually reminded him, he would have to tell John that he was okay after this mess was over. Mainly because even though he was indeed retired, he still kept an ear to the ground. Which meant that he likely knew of the situation on Shanxi and had probably been briefly reinstated for the entirety of this conflict. Heh, if that actually happened, he would feel sorry for the Birds. Mainly because well, what sort of chance would they have against a Hyper-lethal Spartan?

They were closer to the ground now, he could begin to make out individual vehicles along with a scattering of infantry. He could see all of them, just going about their business and doing patrols. The poor bastards had no idea what was about to hit them. Which made sense Fred supposed, still it always served to be vigilant and prepared for anything, because during a drop like this someone looking up or powering on radar could equal trouble.

He glanced at his altitude, just a few more seconds until he activated his jump pack. Those seconds passed in a flash and the team reacted seemingly as one. Together they pitched up and changed their posture, their air speed dropping, with a thought their braking/jump packs activated. Micro-turbojet popped out and immediately spun up, with a thundering roar they engaged. Their airspeed plummeting as they came to almost a dead stop a scant meter above the ground, Mass Effect fields lowered their mass to safe levels. The six of them converted their remaining momentum into a forward combat roll, bringing their rifles off their maglocks, flicking the safety off, and putting the weapons in battery.

"One enemy squad on our twelve, range seven hundred meters, they don't see us. Weapons free!" Fred ordered and acknowledgment lights flashed in response.

A beat passed and then gunfire erupted, plasma and mass effect rounds ripped through the air. In an instant several hostiles were downed by precise shots from the Spartans, plasma bolts ripping through shields, armor, and flesh with incredible ease. Plus there Turian companions were no slouches either, throwing tech mines and biotics at their opponents, downing shields or outright rendering them helpless. The patrol stood absolutely no chance against the strike team and was quickly shot down.

"We got to assume that the element of stealth has been lost. Move out and stick to the shadows." Fred ordered and the acknowledgment lights winked.

The team moved fast, sticking to the shadows and appearing to be ghosts, their one moment and gone the next. The regular Turian soldiers had no idea that there GHQ had been infiltrated by enemy special forces.

As they were advancing towards the command center, Ash who was on point suddenly held up a fist, the signal to halt. Fred frowned, this could be problematic.

"What's the problem two?" He asked.

" _Vehicle up ahead, enemy IFV._ _It's positioned in such a manner that we won't be able to get to the next set of concealment._ " Ash replied.

 _Well, crap._ Fred thought before he opened a comm. "We got a problem, General."

" _I heard, so we got to go loud?_ " Kuril asked.

"I am afraid so, remove your suppressors and get ready for what's likely going to be the toughest firefight of your life." Fred said as he unlimbered the Spartan Laser and flicked off it's safety. He then crept up to the corner and lined up the IFV.

He pulled the trigger and weapon hummed with power as it charged up. When it reached the zenith of its charge the weapon unleashed a blinding green beam of energy. The armor of the IFV flashed vaporized away in the blink of an eye. The whole vehicle exploding into fire and death that illuminated the immediate area like a torch.

Chaos immediately erupted around them as soldiers began running towards the source of the noise, their weapons ready. "ENGAGE!" Fred roared over comms as he stepped out of cover, his weapon set to three-round burst. He fired four bursts in rapid succession: head shot, head shot, head shot, head shot.

Battle was joined as shocked Turians returned fire.

* * *

The sounds of conflict rang through the compound with a rapid unrythmic beat, mass effect weapons clattered, plasma weapons whined, engines thundered, grenades detonated with thunderclap roars, and there was the sounds of the wounded and dying. The sniper calmly crept forward to the edge of the building, his Punisher sniper rifle ready.

With a fluid movement that produced nearly no sound, the sniper deployed the bipod, attached the scope, and thumbed the activation switch. The weapon expanded to its full form, the immense barrel extending full.

With his setup complete, the sniper then listened to the comms to figure out his targets. " _We got a biotic and one of those spirits-blessed warriors hammering our position with sustained rifle fire, multiple tech mines, biotic attacks, and plasma! We're completely pinned!_ " A corporal snarled in surprise and dismay.

" _You think you have it bad, we're playing pin the burst on the sniper! The Spirits-damned bastard is all over us!_ " A sergeant shouted.

" _Spirits! Just saw a laser fire! Cored a Hellion right in front of me!_ " A private yelled.

" _I got eyes on another biotic and another hostile wielding a plasma rifle. We're pinned but we can handle it. I, TARGET ON THE RIGHT!_ "

The sniper shifted his aim and spotted what was in the process of tearing a fireteam apart. Injuries that were designed to cripple were struck as an Omni-blade flashed and whirled while a Maelstrom SMG chattered. The blade effortlessly severing limbs and while bullets tore down shields and penetrated armor in just the right spot to incapacitate whoever got shot for a long time. One soldier managed to ignite his own omni-blade and slashed upwards towards his helmet.

The attacker jerked backward and just barely managed to avoid having his head sliced in two, as it was the blade sliced through the outer armor layers of the helmet. Whoever the assailant was, staggered backwards likely from pain. That allowed him to draw his shotgun, he had just leveled it… when suddenly everything above the shoulders vanished in an explosion of blue gore. The corpse of the friendly soldier slumped to the ground.

The attacker of the fireteam staggered to cover and slumped down. It was clear that whoever it was, that soldier was in serious pain. But the sniper merely marked him as a secondary target with a trio of eye blinks in a right triangle arrangement.

He then returned his gaze to the biotic and the plasma rifle wielding soldier. He inserted something about the size of a credit chit, the gun beeped as it accepted the mod, beeped again as it recognized the mod, and then beeped for a third time as the installation process finished. Phasic rounds loaded.

The biotic flared with power and then hit the position of the decimated fire team with a warp. Moments later a throw flew into the warp and the biotic explosion ripped everything within area of effect to ashes.

The crosshairs settled on the biotic who appeared to be taking a breather. Which considering how the rest of the firefight seemed to be going, fast-paced and frantic was thus completely understandable. However, in this case, it was a fatal mistake.

The Punisher bucked and a bolt of blue-white light streaked across the battlefield, punching into the hostile cleanly in the back of the head. The round slicing through biotic barriers and armor like it was paper, the front of the target's head exploded outward in an explosion of eviscerated bone, blood, brain matter, cloth, and shattered ceramics.

The crosshairs centered on another target, just as he was pulling the trigger. It moved with fluidic grace as two friendlies engaged. Spoiling his head shot, as it was the blue-white bolt smashed past the target's kinetic barriers which failed in a thunderstorm of electrical energy and threw his target clean off it's feet and flat onto his back.

* * *

 **AN: Well that's another chapter completed. Don't crucify me for the cliffhanger please?**


	9. War for Shanxi: Part One

**AN: Alright folks another chapter, war has come to Shanxi.**

 **Guest1: Still a trash fic eh? I can't fix it if you tell me what the problem is.**

 **F86: Thank you, also what the hell is FMA?**

 **Another thing is that I am rectoning the UNSC prefix from UNSCDFS to UNSCN.**

 **Also, one Earth second is two Citadel Seconds by using the formula to calculate a Base 10, a Citadel kilometer is 500-meters. That said, I am not the best at math so if my tactic for finding the length for Citadel Light Second distance is wrong, please tell me and explain how to fix it then I will.**

 **Let's get this show rolling.**

* * *

 **0435 Hours, February 9th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi**

 **Hostile Command Post**

Sierra G099, also known as Ash, knew he was in trouble when the blue-white bolt of fire ripped through his kinetic barriers like they weren't there and smashed into his chest plate with enough force to cause his feet to leave the ground amid a sickening cracking sound. To make matters worse, his shotgun flew out of his hands.

The chest plate for the standard issue Army Guardian Hardsuit that he wore was some four centimeters thick, composed of molecularly reinforced Titanium-A2, along with boron fibers, and scaled ceramics, it could absorb an insane amount of punishment.

This shot punched a deep dent into the plate at the point of impact and caused a spider web of cracks to propagate across it. Warnings flashed across Ash's HUD as he slammed into the ground hard, one of the warnings that flashed across his HUD indicated that he had a cracked rib, painful but not lethal. Hell something like that would barely slow him down, it was just an inconvenience for a Spartan.

The sound of running footsteps complicated matters slightly. Ash pulled himself up to his feet as four Turians surrounded him, their weapons leveled at his chest. "Surrender human, your outnumbered and surrounded."

Despite himself, Ash openly laughed before turning serious. "Surrender?" He asked as he pulled his Plasma Saber and Magnum off of their mag-clamps. "Haven't you heard? Spartans don't surrender." he ignited the plasma saber, a meter and a half of blade of crackling energy that was slightly curved with a rather thin triangular blade and a slightly curved tip, perfect for both hacking and stabbing, sprang to life. "And I am surrounded by dead men."

Then he blurred forth in an explosion of motion. The Turians were probably gaping at him. The magnum boomed three times in rapid succession at the heavy weapons specialist who had a grenade launcher, the first two rounds slammed into his kinetic barriers and caused them to fail spectacularly as the slugs exploded against his armor their mass reduced to the point that they couldn't penetrate, the third one however retained enough mass to punch through his helmet and thus caused his head to burst apart like a melon.

The leader was just staring at him in what had to be shock, the blade swung in a lethal arc, sliced through the kinetic barriers as if they weren't there and seperated the bird's head from it's shoulders. Another lunged at him, the primary melee weapon for the Turian Hierarchy activated and aiming for his chest.

The Spartan batted the strike aside with ease before burying his own blade into the Turian's gut and yanking upward and out. The poor bastard dropped to the ground shrieking in pain. Ash knew that after getting skewered by a plasma blade, the chances of well anyone, even for a Spartan getting back up were incredibly low just because of how much damage the blade did as it passed through it's target.

The last Turian was rapidly back-pedalling from the wholesale slaughter, spraying his Assault Rifle in a blind panic at him. The magnum boomed four times in rapid succession and the last Turian dropped to the ground, a hole the size of Ash's hand in it's torso.

Then he barked "Sniper! The fucker got Tersis!"

" _I am on it two!_ " Mark replied.

Ash's well developed sixth sense suddenly shouted at him to move. He twisted to the left and not a moment too soon for a blue-white bolt of fire slashed through the space that his head had just occupied. Realizing just how bad of a spot he was in, the Spartan shifted his position, making sure to scoop up the fallen enemy grenade launcher. An instant later, something streaked past overhead and Mark's voice came on. " _Got the bastard._ "

"Affirmative three."

Suddenly an enemy IFV roared around the corner and promptly opened fire. Ash swore vehemently over the comm and began to evade the IFV's relentless fire. "Big snag here boss!" The Spartan III said as he flashed his status light red.

" _I see it two, give me a second._ " Fred replied.

"Make it quick!" Ash replied as he dove behind the dead hulk of an enemy tank. The vehicle's smoldering corpse began shaking violently as the IFV hammered it with shells. Suddenly there was a flash of green and an explosion. " _Target destroyed, all units be advised, I am empty on heavy weapons ammunition._ "

"Copy that" Ash replied as he came under fire again from hostiles. He rolled to the left and leveled the grenade launcher, the weapon emitted a loud _choom_ and hurled the explosive device into their midst. The explosion chunked two of the aliens and maimed four others with high velocity sharpnel.

The survivors took cover and opened fire with their assault rifles forcing the Spartan back into cover. He peeked out of his cover just enough to throw a grenade. The device landed at the feet of a fighting pair and exploded a half second later with the fury of a star, with both hostiles vanishing in the golden flash of plasma with shrapnel decking a third member of the fireteam. Judging by the screams, he was badly wounded but not dead.

Ash swung out, his pistol in his hands, the grenade launcher on his back, ready to put the final trooper on the ground. He sighted up the enemy in a flash and pulled the trigger four times in rapid succession.

The Spartan swore when the kinetic barriers of his remaining opponent flashed under the brutal impacts from the massive slugs and caused the wearer of the admittedly heavier looking armor to stumble backwards before recovering and leveling his weapon at Ash. The assault weapon that the bird held roared it's rage as Ash opened fire with his pistol.

In the time that it took Ash to empty the clip of his pistol while dodging enemy return fire to the best of his ability, the hostile managed to unload enough ammunition to cause his kinetic barriers to collapse and for rounds to tear at his armor. Warnings flashed across his HUD, indicating that his chest armor was on the verge of failure.

The spartan reloaded his magnum and opened fire again, this time with a lot more luck. Heavy 12.7x40mm SAPHE slugs effortlessly hammered through the kinetic barriers and started punching into the bastard's armor. The thick plating began shattering under the blows and the soldier staggered nearly falling, allowing for a pair of shots to crash into his neck and blow it apart.

Suddenly there was a pained shriek that sounded over the coms and then Kuril's voice came on. " _Dammit, Diia is hit!_ " he barked as Diia's biomonitor let out a shrill alarm and started flashing red.

" _Her biomonitor is going crazy, I've only seen vitals go crazy like that if some poor bastard gets slashed with an energy sword. Two, get your ass over to her and patch her up, figure out what is causing her bios to go crazy because it's sure as hell not a gunshot wound and then patch her up._ " Fred ordered.

Ash flashed his acknowledgement light in response before running across the battlefield a simple blur that only Spartans could track, managing to get to the downed soldier's position.

It was bad, her torso was shredded mess of liquid armor, ceramic-boron carbide-titanium plates, shattered exoskeleton, tissue, and blood. To him, it appeared that the wound was a normal gunshot wound, why then was her bio going crazy? A normal gunshot wound or even the multiple gunshot wounds from a solid burst shouldn't result in rapidly spiking body temperature, erratic breathing, spiking heart rate, and severe muscle spasms. At least not to this degree, something wasn't right here. That's when he got a closer look at the blood that was starting to leak out of the wound, it wasn't blue that he had long since recognized as normal for Turians, but it was starting to develop a more reddish color.

"Actual, something isn't right about this injury at all!" Ash stated as a burst slammed into his shields, dropping them by a quarter. He rolled towards cover and then dragged the Turian behind the cover that he chose.

" _Shit, what do you mean?!_ " Fred demanded.

"I think she got hit with some sort of toxic round, whatever the hell was in those rounds it's causing Riia to develop Septicemia!" Ash snapped.

At that point, they got an interesting lesson in swearing from Kuril who ranted for about ninety seconds on how some soldier was using a chemical ammunition block, it used an extremely toxic compound that had been imbued into the metal, plus it was considered contraband in most Turian Legions and that for mainline troops it was considered grounds for a demotion or court martial. At least that's what Ash could figure out, that said it was obvious that the Grand General was in a lot of pain from an omni-blade slash that should've sliced through his head but it hadn't only through sheer luck. But he had been badly injured from the heat.

" _That settles it then, this mission is a bust. Overlord come in!_ " Fred said over the comms.

" _Overlord, here War- Dammit Nova I know that_ Thanos _is coming under heavy fire from multiple companies of enemy tanks as well as artillery and air strikes! But these bastards are fighting hard despite the major breakthrough and heavy walker assault, have our artillery batteries commence counter-battery fire rather than suppressing enemy units and send in the Ravens! Warwolf Actual, go ahead._ " General Williams ordered.

" _Sir, initiatie Emerald Contingency, we're pulling out. Six is KIA and both four and five are WIA, five needs immediate medical attention. She was hit by some sort of toxic round that's making her develop a severe case of blood poisoning._ " Fred said.

There was a long drawn out sigh, Emerald Contingency indicated that the mission to relieve the usper of the 6th Expeditionary Force had failed and that Warwolf Team needed immediate evac.

" _Affirmative Warwolf Actual, Emerald Contingency confirmed. Air support inbound, ETA three minutes with evac arriving thirty seconds after that._ " Williams replied.

" _Acknowledged._ " Fred replied.

Ash pulled out a medical kit, opened it and then grabbed a can of biofoam, it was excellent for temporally treating major injuries such as this. However, he wasn't sure if it would work on a Turian, something about their biology being different from humans involving amino-acids. In any other situation, it would've been damn inconvenient, but in this situation? It could result in a soldier dead.

"Four, please for the love of god tell me that biofoam will work on a Turian. Five is bleeding out and needs something to stop the bleeding." Ash asked over the comms.

" _I took a look at the ingredients but I honestly don't know, I think it uses artificial stuff so it might not cause a reaction, but I don't know._ " Kuril said and Ash swore in response before turning to Diia.

"This is going to be cold." He said briskly before flicking away the pin that would allow for him to use the can. Then he placed the applicator firmly in the wound, which resulted in her wincing and then he pulled the trigger. The Cabal member gasped in pain as the self-sealing, space-filling coagulant, antibacterial, tissue-regenerative foam based polymer entered her torso.

Mark's status light flashed red as another round flew out of his rifle and decapitated another Turian. " _Warwolf Actual, be advised. I got eyes on a tank._ " The sniper replied.

Ash swore in response, that was the last thing they needed right now.

" _Type?!_ " Fred demanded.

" _Looks like one of those hover models._ " Mark replied.

That was a slightly better than the tracked monsters that seemed to be rather common now. But regardless it was still a gigantic threat regardless thanks to it's great big Mass Accelerator Cannon that it mounted as well as the machine guns.

The strange oscillating humming of a Mass Effect Anti-Gravity drive precluded the arrival of the Turian MBT. It glided into view, it's form as sleek as a shark, the low squat dome of a turret swinging around as it swept into the clearing, the gun tube elevating.

"Mark, move!" Ash yelled over the radio.

" _No shit! I am moving!_ " Mark replied as he obviously had seen the threat and was now getting down from the watchtower that he had commandeered.

With a booming roar, the tank's main gun discharged and the watchtower that Mark had taken over for his sniper nest had the actual platform blow apart into a shattered mess of composites. The Spartan-III sniper yelled as the ladder he was climbing down came apart and resulted in him falling several meters. Considering the fact that Mark was a Spartan, he was likely alright, just winded, mainly because well falling from a height like that would result in anyone being winded.

Ash brought out the grenade launcher and checked the ammunition and found that the power cell only had enough juice left in it for maybe a half dozen shots. He had to admit, the alien weapon while familiar in it's function, the idea of only having to carry around energy cells for a weapon because it flash manufactured ammunition from raw materials was...weird.

Still, he wished that this thing could fire HEAT, because that's what he needed right now. That line of thought ended, when he poked his up over the cover he was using and saw that the tank was swinging it's barrel around. Cursing, the Spartan scooped up the wounded Turian, slung her across his back, and then bolted across the courtyard that the command firebase had.

The tank fired and the cover that Ash and the grievously wounded Diia had been using was ripped to shreds by the high-explosive shell. Ash's kinetic barriers flickered as they absorbed shrapnel.

He dove behind cover and swung his grenade launcher off his back and opened fire, the heavy _choom_ of the weapon resounding in his ears. The grenade exploded across the tank's armor and kinetic barriers flared into life.

More Turian soldiers were beginning to advance upon them. Feeling more confident now that a tank had arrived and that the Spartan Laser hadn't fired again. Despite that however, the sustained fire from Fred's plasma rifle and Kuril's Assault Rifle combined with well aimed shots from Mark forced them those soldiers to keep their heads down. Which allowed for Ash to pump more grenades into the hulking monster, but it's kinetic barriers stayed firm against the onslaught.

Kuril suddenly stopped firing and shifted to the next bit of cover as the tank's main gun fired again. Unlike Ash however, the Turian wasn't as lucky. The blast threw him forward like a toy thrown by an irate child, he tumbled for a half dozen meters before coming to a stop, groaning in pain over the coms.

"Man down! Man down!" Ash shouted over the coms.

" _Sonuvabitch! Three get to four and get him to cover, two try and distract that tank!_ " Fred snarled, this mission was going FUBAR fast. The firebase was designed to make life hell for attackers and it was ironically working like a charm.

The two Spartan-IIIs choursed affirmatives in response. Ash in an attempt to distract the MBT, he snatched a grenade off his belt, primed it, and then promptly threw the lethal plasma-frag. The throw was perfect, it bounced off the ground at such an angle that it flew upwards and came to rest against this small lip that was just in front of the turret. The device exploded and doused the tank thoroughly in white hot plasma that began to eat away at the exterior cosmetic plating, some of the armor plate underneath, and the barrel of the main gun.

For what it was worth, the grenade did succeed in gaining the attention of the tank. The remote weapon system mounted on top of the turret swung towards him and opened fire, the heavy machine gun spraying rounds at him. Forcing the Spartan to duck unless he wanted to get riddled, which wouldn't be good for his health.

" _Warwolf Actual, Hammer Actual. We're on station, ready to assist._ "

" _Hammer Actual, I got a tank fifty meters from my position. I want it gone._ " Fred replied.

" _Affirmative, coming in now. Target acquired, I have tone, Rifle, Rifle!_ " The pilot intoned in a calm voice.

Several long seconds passed before the missile dropped like Thor's hammer out of the sky. There was a tremendous gold-white flash, the ground quivered, and an explosion roared across the courtyard. Immediately afterward, the racket from the enemy heavy machine gun stopped.

Ash poked his head out of cover and saw that the tank had been utterly destroyed by the ANVIL missile that had smashed into it.

" _Good hit, good hit, target destroyed!_ " Fred barked over the coms.

" _No problem Warwolf Actual, we are engaging infantry in the open. Evac is five mikes behind us._ " Hammer Actual replied.

" _Affirmative._ " Fred replied.

That's when a sustained burst of Assault Rifle fire smashed against Ash's kinetic barriers. The Spartan dropped back into cover and readied his grenade launcher. He leaped back out of cover and fired twice.

The last two HE-FRAG grenades sailed into the two largest clusters of troops that he could find within a half second of each other. The great thunderclaps of the ensuing detonations killed at least a half dozen hostile soldiers and wounded at least twice that. With that the Spartan dropped the empty grenade launcher and pulled his magnum.

Without warning, four streams of plasma suddenly ripped into the hostile soldiers. Screams rose up from the aliens as they were simply ripped apart by lethal energy bolts. Before thankfully the noise of the weapons discharging hit them, a seemingly constant crackling roar that tore at the ears and made your teeth rattle. After several long seconds the onslaught cut off and two incredibly massive jets roared overhead, their three individual engines aglow as they screamed by. Then they began maneuvering to sweep around for another pass.

One of jets deployed flares as a missile raced upwards like a bottle rocket, Ash noted that it was too small to be a SAM launched from a mobile SAM site, but it was about right for a MANPAD.

Something caught Ash's attention, more Turians in extremely heavy looking armor. "Juggernauts incoming!" The spartan said over the comms, marking the soldiers and then leveled his pistol before opening fire.

Acknowledgement lights winked in response and immediately, suppressing fire lanced out from the friendly positions and towards the hostiles. Who immediately went to cover and began returning fire. Bullets and plasma filled the air along with the roar of weaponry.

A circular device came flying at Ash as two enemies fell from headshots from Mark, he recognized what it was immediately. "GRENADE!" he shouted over the comms, already he calculated the trajectory of the device and inside his helm, he grimaced. The device was going to land right between him and Diia, it was something he could survive, although it wouldn't be pleasant.

But he doubted that Diia could survive a point-blank grenade detonation in the shape she was in. His eyes flicked over her vitals and a slight frown crossed his features, no she wouldn't survive the detonation of such a device. By now the grenade was a little over a quarter of the way to him, now moving in seemingly slow-motion.

So what were his options? He could try and catch it before throwing it back, which while vivable he had seen Turian grenades get detonated manually so if he caught it the damn thing could be detonated in his hand and he would likely loose it and a substantial part of his arm, thus he ruled that idea out. He could try shooting it out of the air, which while possible, was fairly difficult even for Spartans to pull off, unless they had a shotgun, plus although he had started with a shotgun he had no idea where the thing went, so that was out. Another idea he considered briefly was waiting for the thing to land and then pick it up and throw it back, which while it was doable it ran into the same issues as the first option.

The grenade was now a third of the way to him, he was running out of time.

He could backhand the grenade, hitting it as if it was a volleyball which could work, unless the grenade had adhesive properties or the fuse was impact, then he would be down a hand and likely part of his arm. An inconvenience sure, but then he would be a liability to the others due to his injury. Another option came to mind, he could set the element zero core in his armor to maximum weight and then attempt to crush the grenade with his weight. But that idea wouldn't work if it had a fuse that was like the M9 or M11 grenades or an impact fuse, plus if he misjudged the leap, he could crush Diia or at the very least severely exbarate her injuries.

That left two options, jump on the grenade or covering Diia with his own body to shield her from the explosion. The latter could work, but there was the fact that he needed to be careful lest he aggravate her injuries, not to mention he would have to cross twice the distance to get to the downed Cabal.

That meant, Ash mused to himself as the grenade reached the apex of it's arc, while maintaining suppressive fire. He would have to pick arguably the most painful option. But to his surprise his mind went back to catching the grenade, maybe he could airball the thing? Yes that would work.

The grenade slowly tumbled into reach and then Ash shifted, his movement was but a blur to those watching him, he expertly snatched the grenade out of the air and then with all of his impressive might hurled it upward at a slight angle. The grenade sailed upwards at a relatively impressive velocity.

Time resumed and the Spartan leveled his pistol and opened fire again at the quite frankly shocked alien troops. The pistol clicked empty as another hostile dropped to his fire, in that time three more had been dropped by Fred and two by Mark. He hit the magazine release and the empty magazine clattered to the ground. He drew his last magazine and slotted it in. "Last mag!" he shouted over the comms before opening fire again.

Yet it wasn't enough, more hostiles in that heavy armor stormed into the courtyard and began laying down thick suppressive fire, effectively pinning the Spartans down and preventing them from being able to fall back. If they had been in Mjolnir Armor it wouldn't have been a problem but sadly they weren't in Mjolnir armor.

The first clue that they had that extraction had arrived, was the pelican shaped dot appeared on their motion trackers and hurtled in fast and low. Second clue was when with a roar, the massive, angular bulk of a Pelican dropship seemingly materialized out of the morning twilight. Immediately it's armor began sparkling as gunfire was directed primarily to it.

"RPG!" Ash roared as he spotted a Turian heft a very familiar looking weapon onto his weapon. With a roar, the rocket shot forth with the speed of a lance thrown by a god, not at the pinned soldiers but at the Pelican.

It detonated against a hardlight barrier that sprang to life once the onboard systems detected the incoming rocket and came to the conclusion that the shot would likely bring the craft down. The shot defeated, the hardlight barrier faded out of existence.

Two more rockets flew at the dropship. One missed, the other crashed against the pop-up hardlight barrier, exploding in a greasy fireball. A series of explosions rocked the Pelican violently as grenades from a launcher crashed against its flank, punching deep dents into the armor of the dropship.

" _Kingfisher, tallyho!_ " the obviously annoyed pilot said, the dropship climbed upwards slightly and then it's rocket pods flashed. Blast-fragmentation rockets lanced out, ripping apart enemy positions with incredible ease. The immense craft spinning on its x-axis and continuing to hammer out rockets. Once that had been done in roughly a one hundred degree cone, the next part of the punishment that it was dealing out came down the pipe. The burn.

The chin mounted plasma cannon came to life, unleashing a crackling roar as a onslaught of indigo colored plasma burst forth. The gunner swept the cannon across enemy positions, the heavy energy bolts burning through kinetic barriers and armor as if it wasn't there. Turians fell to the ground dead or dying as they were ripped to pieces by the massively powerful energy bursts.

The remaining soldiers quickly retreated from sight of the enraged Pelican dropship. " _Get aboard the Pelican, go! Go! Go!_ " Fred roared.

Ash scooped up Diia and bolted for the Pelican which came in and started hovering less than a meter above the deck. The last to stagger aboard was Kuril who most certainly looked like he had been through hell.

"CLEAR!" The crew chief shouted and the pilot for the dropship immediately increased thrust and the craft leaped into the air. It pivoted on its axis and then accelerated, rapidly leaving the AO behind. The two F/A-303 Fenrirs quickly forming up with the Pelican in order to provide cover as the three planes quickly climbed away and vanished into the brightening sky.

The mission had been a failure, any hope of resolving this conflict without the two primary forces on world tearing each other to pieces had fled. That didn't leave many choices except for one, which was to fight. Thus, the two forces would be forced to fight each other until one side was broken, having been rendered completely combat ineffective.

* * *

 **0515 Hours, February 12th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, In orbit of Planet Shanxi**

 **Onboard the Palaven Fighting Ship** _ **Judgement Day**_

"Status report" General Caitius Bruril barked as he strode onto the CIC of the Dreadnought _Judgement Day_ to start his shift.

"The ground forces are getting thrown back with heavy losses, as of three hours ago, it's been confirmed that both the 38th Mechanized Infantry Legion and 371st Assault Infantry Legion have been completely destroyed in their holding actions to allow for the rest of the ground forces to get to the city of Badate and start reinforcing their position. The humans are advancing under the cover of those mobile surface to orbit guns, friendly fighter cover is almost non-existent too thanks to suffering heavy losses from enemy SAMs and ack-ack. To make matters worse, the Cabal Team that was sent in to relieve Lanus, their must have been a screw-up or someone jumped the gun, because their shuttle got shot down in the stratosphere." A tech reported.

Caitius swore, that was bad, two whole Legions gone. The ground pounders were suffering losses that hadn't been seen in decades. Plus the fleet had been smashed pretty severely, if a human fleet jumped in system with the intention to shoot on sight, he doubted that he would be able to hold fast for their warships clearly held the firepower and durability advantage, but it seemed like he had the edge in speed, maneuverability, and rate of fire.

Plus he did have a few extra tricks up his sleeve, some that would be considered clever and others that would draw contempt from his peers. Regardless, in his mind when it came to fighting enemy warships that were vastly superior to his own nearly anything went. Thus anything he could use as an advantage would have to do in this situation.

In that vein he had several carefully placed traps that he was ready to spring at several moments throughout the conflict if it came to that. Still, he didn't know what the composition would be for the enemy QRF, but considering their luck, it was bound to be headed up by one of those "Cruisers" that the documentary had explained was the most common capital ship in the human's navy. Even though they were the size of damn super-dreadnoughts. The idea that their warships were absolutely massive, was insane in the extreme.

Still, being down to two dreadnoughts, three battleships, fifteen light cruisers, another seven light cruisers that were being run solely by the ship's VI and repair drones, a single VI run heavy destroyer and two crewed heavy destroyers, ten manned light destroyers, nine VI run light destroyers, a single VI run heavy frigate, five frigates, and two VI run frigates was all he had at his disposal for ships that could still actually maneuver and fight, plus a few other ships that had their systems slaved to their VIs that while they couldn't fight anymore still had enough structural integrity left to accelerate and accelerate hard.

At least the reinforcement group had brought a specially modified assault ship the _Bloodwing_ , two Battleships, a maniple of Heavy Cruisers and two maniples of Heavy Destroyers so they were looking a little better in terms of ships and fighter numbers. Which was good, still if push came to shove would it be enough? That was one answer that he simply didn't know if it was true.

"Great, any other good news?" Caitius asked.

"An update from Kuril, Cabal member Diia has been taken out of ICU today, she's stable but still in critical condition." A tech reported and Caitius nodded, it had been a bitch and half to work out the plan to get a crack medical team down to the surface without having them shotdown.

At least things were starting to look somewhat better. But it hadn't been easy explaining to Palaven Military Command just how confusing and convoluted the situation on the human world of Shanxi had become. But one thing that Caitius had come to agree on was that if the Turian Hierarchy and the 'United Nations Space Command Defense Forces' which was the military arm for the 'United Earth Government' ever went to war. The results weren't going to be pretty.

"Sir, one of our recon pickets is reporting that they are picking up strange radiation readings some fifteen galactic standard light-seconds from their position." Another tech said several minutes later.

Caitius blinked, that was concerning and not by a small amount either. Fifteen galactic standard light seconds away from the picket put it over four million galactic standard kilometers from the frigate and some fourteen million galactic standard kilometers away from the main formation.

"Sound battle stations throughout the fleet, have the battlenet established." Caitius whispered, a lump forming in his stomach as he spoke the words.

CIC erupted into motion as alarms wailed, the harsh white artificial lighting changing to the dark red of combat lighting. The view ports were sealed with a soft _clang_ as armored panels slid down in front of them, moments later the holographic displays on those panels came to life. Members from the recently relieved third watch came back onto the command deck along with members of the second watch, reinforcing the first watch. Muted clunks rang through the decking as torpedoes and shells were loaded, at the same time the intensity of the reactor increased.

"Withdraw all pickets back to the fleet except picket fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen." Caitius ordered, referring to the frigates and destroyers on station.

The system display shifted as the blue dots indicating retreated back to the main body of the fleet. With three ships, two light destroyers and a heavy frigate remaining on their station in order to observe the arrival. Caitius watched the display with bated breath, mainly because he _knew_ that the human QRF was arriving.

On the displays, space ripped itself apart as a series of glittering portals snapped into existence. "Slipspace rupture detected" the ship board VI intoned. Moments later, like a hungry thresher maw erupting from the ground, the human warships burst from the portals, their engines aglow while the hulls had an aura of radiation around them.

The remaining pickets panicked immediately, for they wheeled around and began to accelerate. As the tactical display updated, Caitis felt the bottom drop out of his stomach as the human warships resolved on the display as the reason for the pickets panicking became obvious.

The warship that he assumed to be the flagship was immense, nearly three galactic standard kilometers in length, roughly brick shaped and bristling with weapons. His trained eyes picked out carefully placed thruster ports, layered point defenses, missile tubes, torpedo launchers, heavy secondary guns, what looked to be launch tubes for something, on the ship's flanks facing forwards were muzzles for what had to be mass accelerators, while on the bow was a small dome, and finally above that dome was the immense muzzle of what could only be the ship's MAC gun.

The ship trailing behind it was also larger than the _Judgement Day_ , being easily one thousand one hundred meters in length. The craft had an instantly recognizable appearance compared to the other ships, with the front widening in width and height for the forward most hundred meters before gracefully transitioning to a somewhat blocky appearance, giving it the look of some aquatic predator given how smooth it was. There was only a few turrets and missile pods visible but a lot more point defense in return, what really caught Caitius's eyes was the sheer number of doors that appeared to be in the ship's flanks. His first impression was that they were torpedo tubes doors, but something didn't quite match that theory for they looked similar to some of the tubes on the flagship. Plus he saw what could be hangers maybe? That ship was an unknown and one that needed to be dealt with swiftly.

There was also four smaller ships that shared the overall profile of three of the ships destroyed over Shanxi several days ago. But they were even bigger, dreadnought sized at nine hundred meters long, they had dual spinal muzzles, point defense weapons, missile tubes, hangar bays, torpedo tubes, and secondary guns. Caitius realized that judging by their posture and performance from similar ships that these craft were obviously a designated ship killer, designed move fast and hit hard, which meant that it was likely a destroyer analogue of some description.

The last six ships looked vaguely similar to the last four ships that had been over Shanxi a few days ago, but the gap between the booms had been filled. Which meant that the spinal weapon had likely been repositioned and thus would probably be harder to take out. Plus they also had an array of missile tubes, secondary cannons, layered point-defenses just like the other ships. But they likely had much lighter armor and undoubtedly a high thrust-to-tonnage ratio meaning that they were likely a frigate analogue.

"SIR! The _Storm King_ is opening fire!" A tech said as one of the enemy destroyer analogues flashed red indicating that it was a priority target as the heavy frigate _Storm King_ wheeled around and began reversing frantically away from the human warships that were advancing in-system as if they were invincible juggernauts. From the ship's four torpedo tubes burst forth a salvo of twelve torpedoes, their antimatter beam drives powering up and boosting the lethal warheads forward once they had been hurled clear of their tubes. They rapidly accelerated to their maximum speed of two hundred fifty-sustained g of acceleration and began to crawl towards the hostile warships, which were some six million galactic standard kilometers distant.

The destroyers _Oathsworn_ and _Emerald Light_ also swung around and fired their own spreads of twenty-four torpedoes each which also began accelerating towards the enemy flotilla as well, the missiles crawling across the screen.

Now the waiting game began, the torpedoes were steadily crossing the distance across the void. Ironically it had been because of the relative closeness to the enemy ships when the torpedoes had been launched, it meant that they either had to do a major burn that would eat up a lot of delta-v and thus could leave them handle capped for the rest of the battle or they could sit and take it.

On the flipside, any hope of a peaceful resolution just went down the drain. Which meant that he had some time to put the battlefield plan he had thought up into action before all hell broke loose.

"Attack groups one and two, commence your burns to points Amax and Barx. You'll jump to engage the enemy fleet with slashing attacks on my command." Caitius ordered calmly before giving his next set of orders. "All fighters that are planetside are to come up stairs and prepare for attack on enemy warships."

One of the bridge techs turned around, confusion was clear on his face. "Sir, that will leave our ground forces with no air cover."

"I know that, but we don't know how many fighters that they have, thus we need every fighter we can scrape up." Caitis replied as the engines of the two designated attack groups flared and they branched off from the main formation, heading to their predetermined attack points.

It was common for combat to start at such incredible ranges, to the point where the enemy was just dots on the tactical plot, with smaller accelerating dots representing torpedoes. But that made combat damn stressful, just watching the Spirits-damned dots crawl across a plot, he could physically feel the tension in the compartment rising as the torpedoes streaked across the screen, steadily gaining velocity as they raced through the void and towards their respective targets. Such was space combat until they got into Mass Accelerator range, long and stressful bouts of nothing happening while at range with intermittent bouts of excitement and terror.

* * *

 **0530 Hours, February 12th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, near Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi**

 **Onboard UNSCN** _ **Pillar of Autumn II**_

" _Trajectory for the incoming torpedoes indicates that possible targets are the_ Normandy _, the_ Wind of Redemption _, and the_ Autumn _. Warhead-type is unknown and doesn't match any known design, they are accelerating at a constant of two hundred fifty-gs._ " Velvet said in a calm voice as three friendly ships were highlighted on the tac display and she analyzed the torpedoes.

"What sort of burn would we need to perform in order to evade?" Reuben asked sharply.

The helmsman quickly consulted his displays before speaking up. "It'll be a high-g maneuver and will cost us a fair percentage of our remass, sir." he typed in a few commands before speaking up again. "It will also be right at the safety envelop for the Old Girl as well, even if we reduce her mass using the ezero core. However our escorts can easily perform last minute evasive maneuvers if they drastically reduce their mass."

Rueben swore under his breath, that left them with only a few options and only a few were pleasant. The enemy torpedoes were well out of range of his Starstreak II Long-range Aerospace Defense Missiles and would be for some time, thus he could stay on this track and use his point-defenses alone to defend the fleet. Another option was forcing a tail chase, but such a maneuver would put the _White Plains_ at risk of being gutted by a torpedo plus they would have to overcome their own forward momentum first and thanks to orbital mechanics, they would then have to setup a major burn to get on the right orbit heading back in-system. The third option was that he launched some of his fighters to intercept the missile, but that would mean he would have to put fighters through a refueling and rearmament cycle which could prove to be problematic if it happens at a bad time. The fourth option was to do a position jump, but no one had ever done a position jump so soon after dropping out of slipspace, which meant that it could result in a catastrophic malfunction.

But he would have to risk it, then again as the saying went "fortune favors the bold". Launching a squadron of fighters now would be risky particularly if the enemy timed another attack perfectly. But it would have to do, a firm weight settled upon his shoulders. "Space Boss, commence operations. Skeleton squadron is cleared for launch!" Rueben ordered sharply.

"Yes sir!" The space boss replied before barking her orders. Rueben knew that deep within his ship, that crews were now scrambling to get fighters ready for launch. It was a simple enough mission, launch and destroy enemy missiles before they could hit the fleet.

His eyes watched as two groups of smaller contacts broke away from the main group of enemy ships and began to haul ass heading out-system. But something about what those ships were doing didn't sit right with him. For once, he wished that _White Plains_ was a _Prometheus_ class Fleet Carrier which not only had the ability to carry swarms of UCAVs, fighters, bombers, AEW aircraft, but also sloops and light corvettes. Plus they had significant firepower as well, much more than the light armament that the _Hannibal_ class Light Carrier had.

The plot around the _Pillar of Autumn II_ grew cluttered as the twelve Claymore fighters shot out of their launch tubes, formed up and then boosted forward, rapidly accelerating away from the fleet and raced towards the missiles.

Watching the fighters close in on the incoming torpedoes added a new feeling to the tension that was steadily building, one of anticipation. The triangular shaped craft raced forwards, their engines aglow with the reaction products from their antimatter drives. Their crews already setting up an intercept as a course path with numbers besides it reached out from the Claymore formation and towards a point in space that was changing periodically as the powerful targeting sensors that the aerospace fighters gathered data and sent it to the navigation program which then ran the calculations to plot an intercept that gave the fighters the most time to engage.

 _Right, that's done. Let it's hope that our ECM system is up to the task._ "All ships initiate defensive jamming, standby on point-defenses." Rueben ordered, once again he found himself eyeing the plot and watching the enemy small ships that were still doing their burns. Something felt wrong about what they were doing, they were heading out-system true but they weren't heading for the Mass Relay and they hadn't jumped to FTL. But those ships weren't headed for the predetermined Interstellar Jump Points either, they were up to something.

"Tactical, make sure you keep an eye on those sloops and corvettes. They are up to something and I don't want to get caught flat-footed." Rueben added.

"Yessir!"

* * *

Caitius watched with concern as the positions of the human warships became obscured with white noise and false targets as they began jamming, the number of hostile dots outlined in red seemingly multiplying. The dark green triangles that were the friendly torpedoes began to waver on screen as their targeting systems struggled against the jamming, before suddenly the torpedoes blips were outlined in a thick black line that stood out sharply against the pale orange of the holographic display with another black bisecting the triangle width wise. Which indicated that the onboard VI that each torpedo was equipped with had just switched to the 'home on jam' capability that the torpedoes had and engaged their ECCM systems to try and burn through the jamming.

From the mess of jamming, twelve small red ovals resolved themselves. They were arranged in four groups of four and were powering towards the torpedoes. That's when the _Storm King_ , _Emerald Light_ , and _Oathsworn_ switched on their active sensors in an attempt to burn through the jamming. Still, the appearance of those ovals indicated that they were either fighters or drones.

"Get me a sensor scan on those hostile fighters. I want to know what we are dealing with." Caitius ordered.

His order was received by quick replies. In less than a minute, a sensor scan appeared on a seperate screen, the enemy fighters were drastically different from the ones that had been seen over Shanxi days ago. They weren't relatively small darts like those fighters had been, but they were massive monstrosities that had a distinct triangular shape that was seventy galactic standard meters long and ninety galactic standard meters wide. With propulsion provided by two massive antiproton drives that would've been more at home on a corvette pushing the immense craft along at incredible speeds. Initial scans also detected ezero cores and heavy mass accelerator weaponry as well as weapon bays, but more disconcerting it also showed hit probabilities for the GUARDIAN laser arrays, it was barely in the thirty percent range. Which indicated that it had some stealth capabilities, nothing like the Salarian ships but good enough to screw over GUARDIAN laser array targeting.

Still, he eyed the plot, something didn't seem right about the fighters that were racing outbound. Their trajectory didn't match up for an intercept burn towards the _Storm King_ , _Emerald Light_ , and _Oathsworn_ , but it appeared that they were instead burning hard to intercept the torpedoes.

 _Can't have that occurring,_ Caitius thought before giving out his next set of orders. " _Bloodwing_ , launch one wing of fighters and intercept the enemy fighters that are moving to intercept our torpedoes."

The _Bloodwing_ was one of the Assault Ships in the fleet at least at first glance. So one could be forgiven that like all assault ships the _Bloodwing_ was lightly armed and had small ezero cores compared to her size, meaning that it was relatively useless for mass lightening, instead like all ships of her type, they used almost all of the benefits of element zero for inertia dampening, artificial gravity, and kinetic barriers. Each one of the immense ships was capable of carrying lots of troops and supplies.

But the _Bloodwing_ as well as her two sisters however had an unprecedented number of strike craft, ten full wings of strike craft with almost no troop carrying capacity as a result. However unlike the craft she was based upon, she also had teeth in the form of two Battleship grade mass accelerators in her wingroots, with a secondary armament in eight double turrets along her flanks, and finally over a dozen GUARDIAN laser arrays. To increase protection compared to the space frame that they were based upon the normal Light Cruiser-size ezero core that Assault Ships were typically equipped with had been replaced with a Battleship grade ezero core. This granted the _Bloodwing_ as well as her two sisters the _Indomitable_ and _Menae_ much heartier kinetic barriers as well as allowing for mass lightening that actually meant something. The compliment was four wings each composed of ninety-six _Besa_ interceptors, four wings of Phalanx fighter-bombers with seventy-two craft in each, and two wings of bombers each composed of one hundred craft.

Caitius watched as the plot around the _Bloodwing_ became incredibly crowded as a horde of fighters boiled out of the ship's belly. They rapidly formed up into their flights and squadrons, creating diamonds within diamonds. Then, with a rapid-fire series of flashes, the _Besas_ raced into FTL.

They materialized a scarce sixty thousand galactic standard kilometers away from the enemy in an absolutely perfect position to intercept them with a rapid gun pass before being able to flip around and then give chase.

* * *

" _That's a shitload of fighters._ " Skeleton Three said in a subdued tone.

" _No shit._ " Skeleton five replied.

" _Looks like two full wings of enemy fighters. All Skeleton Fighters prepare to engage._ " Skeleton Leader said as a new course plot appeared, changing from the intercept with the enemy torpedoes to one that made them intercept the hostile fighters.

 _Breathe_. Flying Officer Henry "Dancer" Barstow thought to himself as he forced himself to take a deep breath as he gripped the controls for his Claymore Multirole Space Superiority Fighter, applying the proper controls to shift his fighter's course. The number of hostile red dots on his display however was absolutely absurd.

" _Papa-Alpha-Tango, we need reinforcements now._ " Skeleton Two said over the comms.

" _We're working on scrambling Mage and Wizard squadrons right now. They'll be launched in ten minutes._ " The Space Boss on the _Pillar of Autumn II_ replied.

" _Try and light a fire under those crews, we'll be engaging in maybe seven minutes max and it'll be a miracle if we last two minutes afterward._ " Skeleton Two said.

 _Breathe._ Barstow thought as he finished the maneuver that brought his fighter onto an intercept course. From the way this was looking, they were going to be entering dogfighting range.

He was now that he thought about it, both excited and terrified that about that prospect. Excited because of how rare entering close range combat with aerospace fighters was these days and terrified because one little mistake was all that was needed to result in being reduced to a mere puff of flame and shrapnel.

The range counter ticked steadily downwards. " _Arm missiles and guns. Prepare yourselves for snap maneuvers._ " Skeleton Leader called out as the distance continued to close. Fifteen thousand kilometers now, pinpricks of light were appearing in the far distance just barely visible as the enemy fighters raced in at the velocities far superior to the Claymore.

With a simple command sent via his Pilot's neural lace, Barstow armed the six ASGM-75 'Minotaur' Long-Range Aerospace Missiles, the eighteen ASGM-125 'Diamondback' Short-range Aerospace Missiles, and the two seventy mike-mike mass accelerator cannons that his Claymore was armed with.

"Start locking 'em up." He ordered to his RIO.

" **Affirmative.** " came the reply.

Targeting brackets quickly slewed onto six enemy fighters and starting glowing a baleful red indicating lock-on. The onboard CI quickly coordinating with the CIs on the other Claymores, making sure that no two fighters were targeting the same bandit. Twelve thousand kilometers to go, the lock-on tone was warbling in his ears as the targeting computers acquired their targets.

" **Enemy targeting radars are trying to acquire us!** " The ECO shouted.

"Spoof 'em!" Barstow replied.

" **Spoofing!** " The ECO replied.

The range was now less than ten thousand kilometers, approaching eight thousand fast. His thumbs hovered over the trigger, waiting for the call that would allow him to fire. The range continued to close.

" _Weapons free!_ " Skeleton Actual shouted as the fighters blazed past seven thousand kilometers.

"Fox three! Fox three!" Barstow said as he jams down on the trigger. Six missiles rip away from his fighter, thanks to usage of Mass-reducing fields and Hybrid-fuel rocket engines that powered the missiles they were accelerated to kinetic kill velocities with an extremely lethal warhead for added punch.

The surprised enemy fighters twisted and twirled in varying directions as a cloud of missiles lanced forth from the Claymores and started homing in on the enemy fighters. Harsh high-g maneuvers and a healthy use of decoys saved some of the fighters but not all of them.

Motion-sensor/lidar/thermal guidance brought the majority of the missiles to within just a few dozen meters. Once they were properly oriented, an extremely controlled high-explosive detonation began as the nose cone blew off and then that explosive reaction spat a payload of tungsten carbide cylinders each a half-inch in diameter. The sheer velocities involved meant that they ripped through shields and armor with ease.

"Sweet Jesus!" Barstow breathed as three enemy fighters were simply eviscerated by his missiles, the onboard CI counting up the kills.

" _No energy shields! Good lord they're helpless!_ " Skeleton Ten shouted.

" _Sucks for them!_ " Skeleton nine replied.

" _Brace for snap maneuvers! Here we go boys!_ " Skeleton Actual said as the disorganized enemy fighters frantically tried to reorganize after the devastating missile salvo.

Not that the humans were going to let them for as the UNSC fighters screamed past fifteen hundred kilometers their formation split apart. Six fighters went high and six fighters went low and as the vaguely feather shaped alien fighters tried to reorientate so they could engage when the Claymores ripped into them.

Barstow whooped with glee as one enemy fighter shattered from the sustained burst of his guns. Kicking in his afterburners the Claymore screamed forward, the g-forces that bled through the I-comps pinning him to his seat.

The tactical display became a convoluted mess as fighters dueled. " _I just got one!_ "

" _Splash five, splash five!_ "

An enemy fighter shot past him, a Claymore screaming after it, a missile leaping away from the big fighter, and behind it was three enemy fighters. Barstow swung his big interceptor around and came up behind the enemy fighters.

Before the aliens even knew he was their, two missiles leaped from his fighter and crossed the scant hundred kilometers in seconds and punched both alien craft out of existence. The last fighter flipped one hundred eighty degrees and opened fire with its mass accelerators, the rounds caused the energy shield bar to flicker and begin to steadily drop. But not fast enough to make a difference, the brackets glided onto the enemy fighter and then the 70mm mass accelerators bellowed a pair of what looked like blinding blue beams lancing out from his fighter as the hyper-velocity shells screamed away.

The kinetic barriers offered no resistance as the heavy shells blew the enemy fighter in half, it's reactor going up a moment later with a brilliant anetic flash and reducing the majority of the fighter to dust and vapor.

"That's five for me!" Barstow said with glee in his voice, he was an _ace_. A legendary title among fighter pilots, he never expected to make ace in his career, let alone in his first engagement.

A Claymore and a alien fighter slammed into each other at full speed to Barstow's right and both fighters vanished from the plot as the sheer speeds involved released energies that vaporized both craft in their entirety.

" _I am hit! I am hit! Bailing out!_ "

A burning Claymore shot across Barstow's path, the fighters responsible racing upwards towards another friendly, they were less than ten kilometers away. With simple inputs to his controls, the Claymore reacted amazingly well, bringing the fighter up onto their six.

One enemy fighter broke apart into its basic pieces as another Claymore did a high velocity gun pass on the enemy formation before flipping around and blasting an enemy fighter on its six.

The missile tone growled heartily in Barstow's ears as enemy fighters were locked up. "Fox two! Fox two!" Barstow shouted as he fired his missiles, they shrieked across the void and punched three enemy fighters out of existence.

* * *

"Pull those fighters out of their right this spirits-bedamned instant!" Caitius thundered as he viewed the butchery that was unfolding via the long-range sensors from the _Storm King_. He had long regarded the _Besa_ as a death trap, but against these _things_ , they were without a shadow of a doubt death traps.

"Spirits, I've never seen anything so lethal." The Space Boss of the _Judgement Day_ said in horror, as the enemy fighters continued to slaughter the _Besas_ with indomitable ease. As they watched on the screens, the few remaining friendly fighters tried to escape, but the human's questionably large but unquestionably lethal fighters didn't let them.

It ended a few seconds later as the enemy fighters ripped the few survivors that tried to disengage to shreds. An entire wing of _Besa_ class Interceptors had just been completely annihilated by just _twelve_ enemy fighters with only two confirmed kills and one of those appeared to have been an accidental ram that had vaporized both fighters.

"Sir, we got pilot beacons. The _Bloodwing_ is requesting permission to launch search and rescue operations." A communications officer said.

"Denied, in such close proximity to enemy fighters the dropships will get slaughtered." Caitius growled as he watched the screens update and his mandibles flared into a cruel smile.

The one-sided slaughter of the _Besas_ had put the human fighters horribly out of position to attempt to intercept the friendly torpedoes. Which were hurtling onwards towards the UNSC ships at steadily increasing velocities. Unless they wanted to burn a lot of their reaction mass, it was practically impossible for them to make an intercept.

"Our sensors have burned through the enemy jamming!" A sensor officer shouted as the false positives resolved into solid contacts. The displays changed as one torpedo managed to acquire lock-on on an enemy warship which flared gold. Within moments it's VI linked to the other torpedoes and they locked on as well, then their indicators changed to a striped blue and green with the black outline and bisector.

It meant that they were still using their home on jam capability but they had entered their terminal stage of flight, their ECCM systems engaged and their sensors having firm lock-on.

From the targeted ship flashes of green light strobbed along its flanks and the incredibly lethal warheads began to get punched out of existence as the ship's point-defenses engaged. Yet it wasn't enough, the missiles though few in number were moving hard and fast. Counter-attack missiles launched as the targeting systems managed to burn through jamming, but the velocity of the torpedoes was so great that out of the one hundred forty missiles launched only one managed to hit it's target. Finally from more points, streams of orange light roared into the void as the Destroyer began evasive maneuvers obviously having been caught off guard by the sheer speed of the incoming.

But the decision to go evasive, Caitius noted had come too little too late. No maneuver apart from going to FTL would save the ship now. Regardless, it was somewhat effective, over half of the remaining torpedoes, roughly forty or so, were swatted out of existence by the close-in point defense fire. Leaving twenty torpedoes left to continue their attack.

A spread of missiles erupted from the flank of the hostile warship, raced out for maybe a half second and then they detonated directly in the path of the incoming torpedoes. The blinding lances of plasma that the detonation of those missiles birthed took the number of torpedoes from twenty to five in an instant.

Then they impacted one after another. The first three white flashes of disruptor warheads detonating caused the ship's shields to _explode_ into existence, a shimmering blue-gold hexagonal field covering the ship. The plating underneath the shields visibly cracked and tore as the wild gravitational fields created by the torpedoes leaked through and began to wreak havoc on the armor underneath.

The fourth torpedo slammed into the same general area as the first three torpedoes did and detonated, the shields pushed to their limits sputtered and died as the torpedo detonated with incredible results. Armor plating that had been cracked and torn by the first three outright shattered, a glittering mosaic of metal and composites was flung into the void. The sunlight catching the pieces and making them glint, creating a weird but pretty effect along one side of the hostile ship. A great gaping wound some fifty galactic standard meters across had been torn into the ship's armor and it had likely been horrifically comprised in a broad area. The torpedo revealed however that like his own ships, the humans used spaced armor to increase protection.

That protection was now worthless as despite the best efforts of the onboard VI that had to be running it's point-defenses, the fifth torpedo flew into the great gash that the fourth torpedo had created and detonated against the pressure hull plating.

Instantly an area of armor that comprised a full citadel kilometer in length shattered, the metal flung outwards at high velocities while a great white plume of air roared out of a breach in a hull. The dreadnought spun like top as the whole warship flexed visibly, plumes of shortly lived flame erupting upwards from the ship's back as metal was simply shattered and rent apart like it was putty. The warship's wild out of control spin had something that was to be expected, the companions of the stricken dreadnought had to break formation so that they wouldn't get hit by the multi-million ton chunk of out of control metal. Secondary explosions bloomed through the ship's hull as the catastrophic effects of the torpedo impact had unexpected but welcome effects, as explosions wracked the hull and ripped it apart even further. The ship's lights were flickering while it's engine cones flared brilliantly as her pilot desperately tried to regain control. Eventually succeeding in doing so, but at the cost of having the drive cones going dark.

Judging by the motions the ship had been doing, Caitius suspected that the ship's back had been broken, if that had been the case then they weren't capable of FTL jumps or maneuvering otherwise the ship would just tear itself in two. Regardless it meant that an enemy capital ship was out of the fight.

"Mark that ship as mission-killed, maybe we can salvage her if we succeed in defeating the QRF." Caitius ordered.

* * *

 **0557 Hours, February 12th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, near Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi**

 **Onboard UNSCN** _ **Pillar of Autumn II**_

" _Normandy_ is down! I repeat the _Normandy_ is down!" A bridge tech yelled as the marker for the _Normandy_ went to bright red as the ship fell out of formation in a three degree per second downward spin. Her once sleek and powerful form now a mangled shell of its former self, the wreck was bleeding air and fuel for the ship's powerful Deuterium-He3 Fusion Reactors. The latter crystalizing in the absolute zero vacuum of space and forming an icy trail that made it appear as if the ship's lifeblood was spilling out from her grevious wounds.

"Skeleton squadron is heading back to the fleet to assume BARCAP, they report two fighters lost in exchange for destroying over ninety enemy fighters." The Space Boss called out.

" _Sir the_ Normandy _has activated her disaster beacon. The crew casualties and damage is, catastrophic. Eighty-five percent of her crew is dead with the survivors all wounded in some way, her marine and ODST compliment has been completely wiped out and the same goes for her aerospace crews. The damage report is as follows: decks three through ten in all sections with exception of sections one, two, and all comprised sections have been gutted and exposed to hard vacuum, the ship's back is broken in easily a half-dozen locations and all of the frames have been damaged in some way though it might be glitch. What isn't a glitch is the fact that the primary and secondary fusion reactors are offline, backup fission plant offline, mass effect core offline, main repulsor drives destroyed, secondary repulsor drives offline, Slipspace drive destroyed, all emergency thruster tanks destroyed, all portside maneuvering thrusters destroyed, remaining maneuvering thrusters are either destroyed or damaged with all of them being offline due to lack of power, all portside weapon mounts destroyed, all secondary batteries offline, MACs destroyed, all energy projectors either offline or destroyed, all point defense lasers inoperable, all starstreak long-range aerospace defense missile batteries offline, all remaining CIWS mounts are either offline or inoperable, starboard side torpedo tubes and Inferno missile batteries are operable but in dry launch mode only, shields offline, backup hardlight barrier offline, quantum entanglement coms offline, artificial gravity offline…_ " Velvet said rattling off the damage.

"Alright, I get it. What _isn't_ damaged, offline, or destroyed onboard the _Normandy_?" Rueben demanded cutting the AI off, the damage report didn't paint a pretty picture for the situation onboard the _Normandy_.

The time that Velvet sifted through the information at her disposal lasted less than a thousandth of a second before she replied. " _Emergency backup power online, auxiliary life support online, portside lifepods online, emergency lights online, maser communication suite online, and one of the exterior running lights is online._ "

Rueben growled under his breath, just five direct hits from enemy torpedoes had rendered one of his four _Daring_ class Heavy Destroyers completely and utterly combat ineffective, no worse than that, they had reduced her to such a ruined mess that she was only fit for the scrap yard. "Reorganize the formation to make up for the loss of the _Normandy_ , stand by for tactical slipspace jump, bring us to within a million kilometers of the enemy. Prepare for energy projector salvo fire." He ordered as he clenched his fist, these sons of bitches were gonna pay.

"Jump plotted sir, ready to execute on command!" A bridge tech said several minutes later.

" _Jump!_ " Rueben snarled.

* * *

 **CODEX ENTRY - Ship-to-ship weapons - Torpedoes:** Torpedoes are self-propelled and self-guided munitions with a variety of purposes, from being fitted with sensor packages and then shot into gas giant to figure out it's composition, temperature, winds, etc. to being equipped with devastatingly lethal warheads. With acceleration curves of up to 250-g or 2.4-kilometers per second squared, they are the one weapon that has more range than a Mass Acceleration Cannon and can actually hit their target. However, while they can be used at range, they can be easily shotdown by interceptors and point-defenses which use mass accelerators and GUARDIAN lasers respectively, not to mention at launch they are incredibly vulnerable. But the warheads that they can use are lethal in the extreme, from Disruptor warheads which use rapidly shifting gravitational fields to rip a target apart at the molecular level to the extremely rare and incredibly destructive plasma and antimatter warheads which can inflict catastrophic damage against their targets. They are typically powered by either antimatter beam drives or micro-fusion drives.

* * *

 **AN: Yes, I really am that evil….**

 **In other news, before you call bullshit on those torpedoes slipping through the Point-defense, those things were hauling ass, when they impacted those torpedoes were going some three-megameters per second, meaning that every second they covered roughly three-million meters. That's something of an outside context problem for UNSCN Point-Defenses.**

 **As for Turian warships panicking, you just had what's equal to a Super-Dreadnought and five Dreadnoughts, along with six Cruisers just drop out of slipspace. I think that sort of reaction would be expected.**


	10. War for Shanxi: Part Two

**AN: The battle over Shanxi continues.**

 **Guest1: Yes, the UNSC does have their own torpedoes, it's just that they are more inclined towards Macross Missile Massacre rather than just chucking a few torpedoes, although as will be seen they are significantly more lethal than Citadel ones.**

 **Trayzin: Normally I would agree with using Slipspace drives to avoid those torpedoes but the thing is that while the Slipspace drive is capable of performing multiple consecutive jumps after a multi-day jump, the older drives like the one that the** _ **Pillar of Autumn II**_ **is equipped with are more susceptible to damage. Standard Military Protocols on the matter states that after a long jump, one must wait twenty-five minutes to give the drive a chance to breathe after pulling a multi-megaton warship out of slipstream space. Plus those torpedoes upon impact was something of an outside context problem for UNSC point-defenses since they had ECM systems and were traveling at three-megameters per second when they impacted. The mounts just couldn't traverse fast enough to peg the suckers, which considering their velocity is to be expected, those torpedoes were blue-shifting from their velocity.**

 **Carlosxx: Disruptor warheads have several things going for them when they impact, first the torpedo when launched from ships weighs about two-hundred metric tons and when traveling at the velocity that those torpedoes were traveling at they got over a hundred megatons of force behind them, the second is when they detonate they create an extremely powerful randoming shifting gravitational field that rapidly cycles between insanely high-g and null-g. The rapidly shifting gravitational field rapidly drains the energy shields as they try to keep that effect out. But on the contrary, you will be amazed by the pounding that the UNSC warships will absorb and just keep on coming.**

 **Guest2: Seriously? Yes, I've buffed the Council, but as it stands. A UNSC MAC has the ability to one-shot anything that isn't a Battleship, Dreadnought, or Super-Dreadnought. Energy Projectors are even more lethal, plus it sounds like you haven't read the codex entry I put together on the Rachni Wars.**

 **Guest3: I would think that Disruptor Warheads are a slight outside context problem, UNSC and Covenant warships don't travel through slipspace with shields up and Halo lore supports this fact. Granted those energy shields got a fairly quick cycle up time, but since energy shields don't have to deal with the eleven dimensions of slipspace, a four-dimensional warp particularly several in quick succession does massive damage to shields plus you get minor bleed-through. Before you harp about how the armor is designed to handle it, that would be because the entire facing is repelling slipspace but here it's extremely focused on a point maybe a dozen meters wide and thus the armor just can't take that sort of punishment against such a narrow point.**

 **Guest4: Normally you are correct, however torpedoes fired at long range while devastating weapons, can be easily avoided by shifting the majority of your element zero core to mass lightening plus the torpedoes typically need to be slaved to a ship's FCS. But such a maneuver wouldn't work for a UNSC ship, even a** _ **Daring**_ **class Heavy Destroyer masses a significant amount even though she has an ezero core it's under-sized for the job. Plus, ezero is still a relatively new thing for the UNSC, plus ezero FTL is mostly seen as a backup to Slipspace Drives because Slipspace is much faster than ezero FTL and it offers more in terms of tactical flexibility. Thus ezero FTL and really the advantages of mass lightening in general has only been seen for vehicles and infantry armor.**

 **Techies: Have you not read the fact that Fred, Ash, and Mark are using the standard issue Army hardsuits because they don't have access to Mjolnir? I am sure I have mentioned it more than a couple of times. Spartans and ODSTs will use energy shields but the regular grunts are stuck with kinetic barriers because of the fact that kinetic barrier systems are cheaper to both build and maintain compared to energy shield systems.**

 **OORAH: I would agree as well, but well three-megameters per second is really fucking fast as in objects at that velocity blue-shift fast. Plus the torpedoes are blasting out their own ECM, so the point-defense targeting sensors first got to burn through that, then they got to engage, with both the target and parent vessel moving at relatively decent velocities in relation to each other, the point-defense mounts actually have trouble tracking the incoming.**

 **Also, recommended tune for the first part of the chapter: Curbstomp Song.**

* * *

 **0559 Hours, February 12th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, near Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi**

 **Onboard UNSCN** _ **Pillar of Autumn II**_

" _Jump!_ " Commodore Rueben snarled.

For several seconds a low, deeping humming sound resonates through the ship before with a flash of light, a swirling portal opens. The massive Heavy Cruiser shoots into it, vanishing from real space for roughly three seconds before rematerializing in normal space.

Just over a million kilometers from the alien fleet, on the _Autumn_ 's bow, the small titanium dome that's situated under her the muzzle of her MAC gun opens like a flower and begins to charge up, a low whine builds throughout the ship as plasma is shunted into the firing matrix as magnetic field projectors cycle up ready to guide the lethal energy.

Beta particles froth from the muzzle of the weapon as the energy levels builds within the focusing chamber. "Energy projector is hot, removing final safeties now!" The weapons officer announced.

On the tactical display, the UNSC fleet had shifted formation, the four frigates that were equipped with a spinal MAC were in the wings, while the ships that had energy projectors were in the center, their lethal weapons aglow with the tremendous amounts of energies they were containing.

"All ships standby for volley fire!" Rueben ordered.

"Target locked!" The tactical officer reported.

Moments later a web of trajectories appeared on the tactical display as the other ships locked in their own targets, the coordination between the various shipboard AIs making sure that no ship would have two beams of starcore plasma targeted to them.

The enemy formation was starting to scatter as the enemy commander realized what was coming, but it was too little too late to make a difference. "FIRE!" Rueben ordered.

The intervening blackness that spanned the million kilometers between the advancing UNSC warships and the aliens seemed to melt away for a split-second as fifteen energy projectors fired as one. Blue-white beams tinged silver streaked across the void, covering the distance in just over three seconds and they tore into the enemy fleet with devastating results.

Four of the five biggest warships, each just over a kilometer long, vanished in blinding anectic flashes as armor flash boiled away and atmosphere ignited resulting in the hull tearing themselves apart as numerous explosions rippled through them. While the fifth ship only suffers a glancing blow that scoured all of the armor and weapon mounts from the entirety of it's port side, the hull glowing a brilliant orange from the sheer heat, the engines splutter but stay engaged. Six ships that were seven hundred fifty meters in length had also died in the hellish salvo with two more having been crippled by the lethal beams. Finally five ships that were five hundred meters long had been reduced to shattered hulks as well and several ships that were a scant three hundred meters long had been caught in the salvo as well, unintentional victims of the energy projector salvo.

"Multiple kills confirmed, four enemy capitals neutralized and eight light destroyers killed, multiple smaller ships destroyed or crippled!" The weapons officer said with a small note of glee.

" _Five minutes until energy projectors recycle._ " Velvet reported.

The Commodore watched the tactical displays as the enemy fleet frantically reorganized to make up for the devastating losses they had suffered. The enemy fleet had been thrown completely off balance by that opener. He clenched his fist. "All ships accelerate to combat speed, standby to open fire with MACs and missile batteries on the stragglers that survive the second energy projector salvo." he ordered.

The _Pillar of Autumn II_ rumbled as she began accelerate towards her nominal combat speed of one-hundred sustained g, the age of her engines limiting the task force's velocity. The range closing steadily as she plodded forward, the low whine of her energy projector cycling up for another firing barely audible.

"The enemy is launching fighters!" The ops officer barked as on the display, one of the warships had it's contact marker grow exponentially as attack craft boiled out of it's hold. That confirmed his earlier suspicions about that ship, it was a carrier.

An incredible swarm of fighters launched from the ship's bays, a thick cloud of craft that rapidly formed up into their formations. Rueben's eyes widened as the estimated count of fighters appeared, there was damn near a thousand craft in that swarm.

"New orders to the fleet, launch all fighters and UCAVs, standby on point-defenses. Have our fighters standby to mop up the survivors." Rueben ordered.

The crew sprang to their tasks and orders were sent. Numerous craft raced from their launch tubes, the _White Plains_ became a hive of activity as her aerospace wing scrambled, fighters and UCAVs by the hundred poured out of her launch bays. They formed up into their squadrons and then into their wings, four squadrons to a wing.

"Energy projectors are hot, removing final safeties! Ready to fire on command!" Weps announced.

"All ships target the remaining heavies, initiate countdown timers from t-minus ten seconds." Rueben ordered and on the tactical display, another spider web of trajectories reached out to the enemy fleet which began to scatter again, with much more urgency almost as if they sensed what was coming. It wouldn't save them.

" _All ships ready to fire!_ " Velvet announced.

"Fire!"

Once again the void was illuminated by fifteen blinding beams of hot plasma that contained the fury of a star streaked forth at .85c. The two intact light destroyer-analogues simply blew themselves apart as plasma beams passed through their shields and armor with ease before finding their reactors with predictable results while the crippled pair of light destroyer-analogues and the heavy cruiser-analogue was given their last rites with plasma beams passing through comprised armor and hulls with ease, the ships flying apart in cataclysmic yet brief and silent explosions.

The majority of the remaining energy beams sought out some of the Heavy Frigate analogues and blew them apart with contemptuous ease. One beam however scythed through the enemy fighters that had just been starting to advance, dozens maybe hundreds of the tiny craft died as shields and plating that was woefully insufficient melted or boiled away, it then caught the carrier amidships as it was frantically trying to maneuver out of the way. The energy beam cleaved the warship in two in a fantastic explosion of light and energy, the severed bow tumbling away the engines still running hot.

The enemy fleet scattered in a blind panic, their antiproton drives accelerating them to sublight speeds that quite frankly wasn't possible for the repulsor drives to attain without burning them out and it was flatout impossible for the _Autumn_ 's aging fusion drives to achieve those velocities.

"Enemy fleet reduced!" A bridge officer called out.

"Let's finish this, broadcast a request in the clear for them to power down their engines, heave to, and prepare to be boarded, they'll be treated fairly and receive medical attention for any injuries; they got five minutes to comply. Those that don't, blow them out of existence." Rueben ordered, as he nodded at what the screens were displaying.

"Yes sir!" A bridge tech replied before getting on with his orders.

* * *

 **Onboard the PFS** _ **Archer**_

 **Several light seconds from Shanxi**

Acting Captain (Bevert rank Lieutenant Commander) Spartacus Caepdas starred in numb shock at what he was seeing on the sensor displays. The 6th Expeditionary Fleet was effectively _gone_ , less than fifteen minutes of combat had rendered the majority of the remaining ships to dust, vapors, and echos.

"What's the status of the VI-slaved ships?" Spartacus requested.

"All of the ones that were slaved to the _Judgement Day_ 's VI have gone dark and almost all of the ones that were slaved to their own VIs have gone dark as well." A bridge tech replied.

Spartacus had to restrain the urge to swear, they had just about nothing left to fight. Of course, considering the ferocity and speed that those ships using plasma particle projectors had ripped through the main heart of the fleet. How the hell could the ships under his command make a a force that annihilated a fleet that was far larger than it?

"New signals sir from the enemy fleet. They are requesting us to shut down our engines, heave to, and prepare to be boarded. We'll be treated fairly and receive medical attention as specified under the "Geneva Conventions of 2578". We have roughly five Terran minutes to comply." A comms officer reported.

Spartacus blinked in surprise, but his surprise then turned to anger as he processed what he had heard. They wanted him to _surrender_? Turians never surrendered, there was a saying that said . That said, he knew that reinforcements was nearby, just beyond the mass relay if he remembered right waiting for an order that would bring them in.

"Sir, the group stationed at point Barx is attacking!" A bridge tech shouted as a half-dozen frigates led by a heavy destroyer appeared a scant two hundred thousand galactic standard kilometers away from the human fleet and opened fire with everything they had.

Mass accelerator shells and torpedoes streaked across the void, the shields of the enemy ships snapping into existence as shells slammed against the defensive energy shields that the human warships had, releasing their energies in multiple triple-digit kiloton and single-digit megaton bursts. While the torpedoes crawled across the void at their high-sustained speed, in response to this threat, the flanks of three human warships were engulfed in fire and hot-gases as they each launched dozens of missiles, each a galactic standard meter across and sixteen galactic standard meters long shot forwards.

The onboard VIs that the torpedoes had, came to a decision and the torpedoes started evasive maneuvers to throw off the aim of the incoming missiles and engaged their ECM systems to spoof the interceptor warheads. However the counter-attack missiles weren't fooled, they effortlessly stayed on target, despite the rapid jinking that the torpedoes were doing. Once the missiles got within five hundred kilometers, they exploded and a full three-quarters of the torpedo salvo got swatted out of existence by what could be best described as a shotgun blast.

The surviving torpedoes managed to close the distance further, but they didn't even get within ten thousand kilometers, for once they passed roughly forty-thousand kilometers. The three human warships that had launched the interceptor missiles opened fire with their point-defenses, strobes of green flashed from the stalwart warships and simply punched the remaining torpedoes out of existence with compentous ease.

The retaliation was swift and brutal, motes of red light gathered on the lateral lines of the Super Dreadnought, a dreadnought, and a cruiser. Forming an angry red band of light and energy that just screamed malice.

"Beta particle spikes, they're preparing to fire plasma weaponry!" A bridge tech shouted and if Spartacus had been capable of doing so, he would've paled. More plasma weaponry and judging by the profile of the energy and radiation as well as how it compared to those on record, these weren't plasma cannons. But was instead something far more lethal: plasma torpedoes.

His fears were proven correct when the torpedoes launched. To his surprise, the Super Dreadnought only launched two torpedoes, but the Dreadnought and the Cruiser launched four pairs of torpedoes while the Cruiser launched only two pairs. Not that it was of any consolation, there was still _fourteen_ hellfire red comets streaking across the void at incredible velocities, covering the one hundred sixty-thousand galactic standard kilometers in just thirty seconds.

Attack group two had commenced evasive maneuvers, but it was futile. The incredibly accurate guidance system kept the bolts of lethal red fire unerringly true. They burned through kinetic barriers with horrifying ease and then through the armor plating and interior pressure hull underneath. Explosions ripped through the ships as internal atmosphere explosively ignited as great swaths of hull simply boiled away from the immense heat of the weapons that splashed across them. Within seconds after the torpedoes impacted, their backup fusion drives or in the case of the destroyer, the primary ezero fission core blew. The ships turned into six brief, eye watering flashes that was either blinding white or dark blue-black in color, reducing the ships to scraps and dust that was scattered to the void.

They hadn't even managed to cause the shields to fail despite having hammered one of the ships with easily dozens if not hundreds of rounds and easily several hundred megatons worth of energy.

"Are there any friendly comm buoys left?" Spartacus requested from his bridge crew as the death flashes of attack group two faded from the bridge windows. Had he been less level headed, that would've been them.

"One sir." A bridge tech replied, her voice shaky, having been obviously rattled by what had just unfolded.

"Link us into the network, get the 5th Strike Fleet in here right this instant! Get us to that Mass Relay on the double!" Spartacus ordered swiftly, there was only seven of the massive fleets in existence, but each one was insanely powerful, with a combat core composed of no less than five Super Dreadnoughts, fifteen Dreadnoughts, and forty-five Battleships these fleets were feared by the enemies of the Turian Hierarchy because they packed huge amounts of firepower and were the absolute elite of the Turian Navy.

The bridge crew sprang to their tasks, the PFS _Archer_ and the ships she was with shifted their ezero-cores to mass-lightening, before her antiproton drives blazed propelling the ship forward at velocities beyond the speed of light for several seconds before stopping. The Mass Relay loomed a mere forty thousand galactic standard kilometers away off the _Archer_ 's port bow, the half-dozen frigates of Attack Group One flashed into existence around her several moments later.

The relay hung in space, uncaring about the conflict that was raging in-system. It's rings spinning in concentric circles, the glowing blue mass of element zero contained within them pulsed sernely. It was beautiful in a strange way, there was just something peaceful about it.

Then it came to life, the unique lines that were inlaid into the surface of each Mass Relay flashed and flared into life, element zero blue traced elegant lines across its surface while the alien runes that dotted the concentric rings illuminated themselves as the relay made the connection to it's sister. It silently crackled and thrummed with power as it created a massless corridor for ships to speed along the galactic highway.

With a rippling flash of blue in the impossible far-distance, an entire frigate wolfpack of nine heavy frigates decelerated from superluminal velocities to sublight speeds in perfect combat formation, their antiproton drives glowing a vibrant blue. More flashes rippled across the void as first dozens and then hundreds of warships raced out of massless corridor that the relays had generated, rerouting their built-up static charge into their antiproton drives to give the ships more acceleration as they headed in system.

From the ships that were Cruisers or larger, fighters launched. Flights of fighters of varying size dropped from the ships as they launched _Besa_ Interceptors and the larger and bulkier _Phalanx_ multiroles. The craft formed up, creating wedges within diamonds as the fighter squadrons took up diamond formations with the ships taking up wedge formations.

The coordination was perfect and flawless as orders were sent and VIs designated the slots for the formations to fill, the ships and fighters came in hard and fast, with the finest soldiers in the galaxy commanding them. Over a thousand warships of the glorious Turian Hierarchy sallied forth heading for battle, accelerating to combat velocities.

"Orders from the _Solstice of Night_ , our formation is needed at this position immediately." A bridge tech said, a position light up on the far right edge of the fleet's formation, the VI already working to plot a course and the burns required.

"Send confirmation to the _Solstice of Night_ , helmsman get us to that location immediately." Spartacus said before addressing the _Archer_ 's VI, Harmpon. "Harmpon, what's our group designation?"

As he spoke, the _Archer_ rumbled under his feet and the brief feeling of motion overtook him before the I-comps engaged thus negating the feeling. On the displays, the _Archer_ and her small _ad-hoc_ squadron maneuvered quickly towards their designated positions.

"Our group designation is zebak-fifty-five." Harmpon replied as the _Archer_ and her subordinate frigates got into their proper position.

Spartacus nodded at this information, filing it away until later for when had engaged and they got orders. The main holodisplay told the tale as two wings of _Besa_ class Interceptors went into FTL and dropped out in proximity to the human ships and began feeding tactical data to the fleet.

The human fleet was wheeling around and positioning themselves over the north pole. An immense cloud of smaller craft flitted around them, waiting for the signal to attack. There was easily over a hundred of those lethally large fighters in parade perfect formations, with at least as many smaller fighters supporting them, UCAVs.

Still, something wasn't right. No force in their right mind would stay and pick a fight to go head-to-head with a Turian Strike Fleet, except for maybe the Krogan and they didn't have a fleet anymore. Yet they stood their ground defiantly, almost as if they were actively daring them to press their attack.

The 5th Strike Fleet wouldn't let them down, they would send them running back to whatever hole they came out of.

* * *

"They're running!" Someone whooped and cheers erupted on the bridge of the _Autumn_ as the remaining enemy ships broke from their anchor point and bolted for the mass relay.

For Velvet and Rueben however, something didn't seem right. "Quiet down, quiet!" The commodore shouted.

The sensor officer suddenly turned around in her chair, her eyes wide. "Sir, the mass relay just lit up like the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center." she said in alarm.

Whatever exuberation that the bridge crew of the _Autumn_ was feeling died horribly at that statement."How high are the energy ratings?" Rueben asked, he didn't show it but he was worried.

"Practically off the scale, something large is in transit!" The sensor officer shouted.

 _Ah shit, this isn't over, not by a long shot._ Rueben thought, his alarm at the situation rising.

"Contact, multiple new contacts in the AO! Nine, twelve, thirty, seventy, one thirty, one eighty!" The sensor officer shouted as the tactical display went absolutely crazy. Division after division of enemy warships decelerated from superluminal velocities, in perfect combat formation. The number kept rising as more and more ships entered the system.

The atmosphere onboard the _Autumn_ turned frigid as the number kept climbing. "Four hundred contacts and rising!" The sensor officer screamed.

 _Well, fuck, I wonder if this is how Commander Lash felt when he discovered the_ High Charity Defense Fleet. _Because, well, this is terrifying._ "Comms, get Arctructus Station online on the double, I am declaring Contingency: Charred Ares, with a probable Bloody Arrow. We need reinforcements immediately." Rueben ordered.

That meant two things, the first meant that there was an invasion from unknown alien forces in progress, while the second meant that friendly forces had been overrun in a total rout. The latter had been declared thousands of times during the Human-Covenant War.

"Yessir!" The comms officer reported quickly.

" _Sir, all ships are asking for orders, do we run or do we fight?_ " Velvet asked.

"We fight, we swore an oath to defend Earth and her colonies from all threats foreign and domestic. Plus if we flee, General Williams will be open to orbital bombardment, there is quitely simply too many ships and not enough surface-to-orbit guns to go around." Rueben replied. "All ships are to assume formation alpha-three, maximize our point-defense coverage, I want fighters on standby ready to engage enemy fighters at a moments notice!"

" _Enemy fleet is advancing, strength estimate: 1,111 warships. They'll be in range of the energy projectors in twelve minutes._ " Velvet announced as the _sea_ of red dots indicating hostile ships.

"Has Arctructus Station received our request for assistance? Because we got no way in hell that we can engage that sort of fleet and win, even if their ships are glass cannons, they can still wear us down with sheer numbers." Reuben replied, clenching his fist.

" _They have sir, 2nd Fleet has just been dispatched. ETA one and half hours._ " Velvet replied.

That was a minor consolidation to the Commodore, over seven thousand men and women were depending on him to get them through this storm. "Velvet, if we launch torpedoes and use the micro-slipspace jump capability of their impulse drives, think we can catch them by surprise?" he asked.

The AI's avatar looked thoughtful for a second before she nodded. " _Yes, we can. They don't know that our torpedoes have impulse drives. We can drop them out of slipspace right on top of their heads, it should be an interesting show to watch on sensors._ " Velvet replied.

"All ships, stand-by for extreme range torpedo salvo, set micro-slipspace jumps to the following coordinates, one standard salvo, mixed load of plasma and nuclear warheads." Rueben ordered sharply, the fire control systems working frantically to tie down the locks required, plotting the course that the lethal warheads would take through slipspace, and for what formations they would target.

Indicators flashed green on the battlenet as the ships reported their readiness. The moment all ships reported readiness. A single command was barked. "FIRE!"

A series of muffled thumps rang through the _Autumn_ 's aging hull as electromagnetic rails hurled the torpedoes out of their launch tubes. With a flare of purple-white fire, impulse drives flashed into life and propelled the massive missiles, each the size of a small ICBM lanced forth, propelling the roughly twenty lethal warheads forwards at high velocities. They quickly covered three hundred kilometers before they vanished in a brief flash of Cherenkov radiation and purple-green light.

Two minutes later, the torps reappeared in a similar eruption of light and radiation. Startled laser fire lanced out. Strobes of dark red light flickered and pulsed out from the ships, aiming to swat the torpedoes from existence. Several of the warheads did die to the hastily aimed but surprisingly effective laser blasts, three, four, eight, twelve, sixteen, thirty, sixty, one hundred ten torpedoes out of a salvo composed of two hundred warheads died to the energy beams.

It wasn't enough, for there was still ninety torpedoes to go around. The first missile to reach the enemy formation was tipped with a massively powerful nuclear bomb that made the implosion weapons of the early 21st century look pathetic. It detonated in a blinding nova that was in excess of three hundred megatons in vacuum that completely engulfed a squadron of Heavy Corvette analogues and wiped them out, armor and hull vaporizing or melting under the hellish heat that they were dropped into.

This repeated at least a half dozen times with sloop and corvette squadrons before the first plasma warhead struck. It speared an enemy sloop analogue amidships and detonated, completely immolating not only the ship it hit but roughly half the squadron that the ship was in. Other ships that had been in the squadron drifted out of control, their hulls reduced to wildly spraying molten material from reactor detonations or semi-molten states. Molten material separating from the hulls and forming perfect slowly cooling spheres in the vacuum.

More sloop, corvette, and even the occasional light destroyer squadrons died in this fashion. Lethal blue-white and blinding white detonations erupting in the blackness of space, each one signaling the death of an entire squadron of ships.

The enemy vanguard scattered, antiproton drives flashing and propelling the ships away on random intervals and trajectories as they lashed out with their point-defenses. One missile vaporized what appeared to be at least forty enemy fighters and a trio of unlucky sloops with it's fiery wrath.

Wild cheers were filling the bridge at the sight of the chaos that the torpedoes had weaved among the enemy, as well the losses that they had sustained. The surprise salvo had put something of a dent into the enemy fleet and in the end had drastically improved upon their chances for survival.

"Sir! Enemy corvette squadrons accelerating, they're behind us!" A sensor tech shouted in alarm as several squadrons of enemy ships appeared less than sixty thousand kilometers behind them and pivoted around with the grace of a fighter before opening fire. Slugs blue-shifting through the void towards them, their was absolutely no time to evade, or even shout a warning.

The _Autumn_ shuddered as rounds impacted. "Secondary batteries, lock on to those fuckers and fire!" Rueben roared.

Moments later, it seemed hell descended onto the enemy. Turrets swung around and orange bolts of fire split the night of space. For several brief seconds, within the maws of the turrets onboard the _Pillar of Autumn_ _II_ that could bear, a purple-blue glow built up before being discharged. Unerring bolts of plasma streaked across space at insane speeds, joining the accelerated bolts of lightmass.

An entire squadron of corvettes died before they even knew what sort of storm was descending on them. Armor and hull simply getting blasted apart by the energy bolts that hammered into them, eye-watering flashes erupting in the void.

Energy shields flashed and rippled as slugs ripped into them, barely denting them as the slugs shattered against the unyielding brick wall. Laser arrays warmed up and then voiced their wrath, high end terrajoule grade pulse laser arrays opened fire, green light strobbed and flashed as the shields continued to absorb the beating that the three remaining squadrons of corvettes were dishing out. An entire squadron of ships died within moments of the laser arrays opening fire, holes melted through armor with the ease of a chainsaw through paper that rent great gaps in the enemy hulls. Precisely aimed shots with the accuracy that only AIs could provide breached reactor compartments, destroyed battery banks, melted weapon ports, and roasted CICs.

The coup de grace finally came from the UNSCN _Tigris_ , UNSCN _Eclipse_ , USCN _Evergreen's Path_ , and USCN _Pillar of Autumn II_. Both frigates launched a large salvo of Inferno Missiles, a cloud of the missiles streaked across the void, accelerating at well over a hundred-g, frantic laser pulses lanced forth but it wasn't enough. The collective wrath of four UNSC ships: one Heavy Cruiser, one Heavy Destroyer, and two Heavy Frigates each launching a standard missile salvo equaled to a shit ton of missiles.

Numerous blinding explosions simply blotted the force from existence in hundreds of blinding spheres of antimatter enhanced plasma lances that each missile created. Only a few such missiles had the capabilities to annihilate almost any lighter ship that the aliens had. The sheer number of missiles used wasn't just overkill but _massive overkill_. As the searing flashes from the warheads vanished, the remaining ships had just vanished, the searing heat and energies released by the Casaba Howitzers with an antimatter kicker having completely atomized their targets.

* * *

Spartacus stared at the display and at the carnage that had just been wrought. Dozens of ships had been killed with nothing to show for it, except for lots of dead soldiers who had fought and died for absolutely nothing, such a waste of good men.

The humans had delivered a statement, unless they were hit hard and fast. They would stand as stalwart defenders who would never yield under any circumstances, that would be problematic. "Sir, new orders. All ships are too close to six hundred thousand kilometers via an FTL jump and then all ships are to advance under covering fire from the capital ship section." A bridge tech reported

Spartacus blinked before growling out. "Oh joy, this is going to get _fun_."

"Ten seconds till jump, six, five, four, three, two, one, jumping!" Harmpon said and space around the _Archer_ bent and twisted as the destroyer rocketed past the light-barrier for several brief seconds before translating back to sublight velocities.

Dozens of energy spikes radiated from the center as the Super-Dreadnoughts, Dreadnoughts, and Battleships opened fire with their spinal mass accelerators. Shots red-shifted away from the force, a lethal red blur that streaked towards the enemy ships, they covered the distance in seconds.

The first rounds had just started to shatter against the enemy energy shields when the humans retaliated. Their spinal MACs fired first, hurling tremendous slugs into the void at velocities that paled in comparison to the slugs fired by Dreadnoughts and Super-Dreadnoughts but was roughly on-par in velocities with tremendous slugs that they fired blue-shifted towards the friendly ships and they started to die.

The first slug that hit a friendly ship came from the super-dreadnought. It blasted through an unfortunate maneuvering Heavy Frigate, the _Primal Fury_ like it's shields and armor mattered little, the ship simply flew apart as it's hull appeared to ripple in a similar fashion to water after something impacted it, then still had enough power behind it to more or less vaporize the Heavy Destroyer _Night of Eternity_.

Less than a half second later, eleven more slugs ripped into the fleet, each claiming at least one ship. One of the Super-Dreadnoughts took a spectacular one-two blow that caused it's kinetic barriers light up like a Citadel nightclub. Both slugs having their mass reduced to the point where they carved deep non-penetrating furrows into the armor as the massive slugs flattened themselves against it.

"Beta particle and thermal spikes on sensors, captain, the enemy ships are preparing to fire their plasma particle projectors." A bridge tech announced.

Spartacus thought hard, trying to remember the information he had been taught on the weapons. One fact suddenly leapt to the forefront of his mind. "Signal the _Solstice of Night_ , the enemy has to drop their shields to fire their plasma particle projectors, otherwise the plasma will backscatter against the shields and do major damage to the ship that's firing. If we time our strikes perfectly, we can deal severe, possibly even fatal damage to a number of enemy ships." he ordered.

The communications officer leapt to his task, meanwhile the holodisplay showed new orders. The left and right wings of the formation were to ascend and descend twenty thousand galactic standard kilometers respectively in order to attempt an envelopment attack. If properly executed, the maneuver would make sense and it would put the enemy in something of a tight spot.

"Helmsman, prepare to descend twenty thousand kilometers on my signal." Spartacus ordered.

"Yessir!" The helmsman replied.

The cruisers in the central wing open fire, more slugs getting thrown into void. The energy shields of enemy which are already flaring and rippling from the constant hammering that are being unloaded onto them has something happen to them. It occurs to the cruisers in an instant, shells from a Dreadnought, the _Dragon Queen_ , suddenly made direct contact with ship. Directly in the plasma projector focusing matrix, with catastrophic results.

The plasma escapes containment and promptly runs wild, multiple secondary explosions bloom within their hulls as armor and hull begin to boil away, as the plasma eats through the ship from the inside out. With an electrostatic flash, the shields collapse. Plumes of escaping atmosphere erupt from forward of the bow as shells flatten themselves against weakened armor which fails when the next set of shells rip into them. One of the ships has it's bridge dissolve in a blinding flash as a mass accelerated shell smashes into it, while the other loses altitude controls and begins to list and descend out of the formation.

At that moment, the fighters pounced. Dozens of the sleek craft dropped out of FTL and accelerated as all spirits-damned hell broke loose in about six seconds. Laser pulses, energy bolts, mass accelerated shells, and counter attack missiles suddenly poured into the void from the human ships while their massive fighters attacked with appalling savagery.

Panicked cries from Turian pilots filled the airways as they were engaged from all sides. Silent flashes continued to erupt along the flanks and bow of the crippled frigates, their armor began to fail as slugs began to penetrate their hulls as the fleet focused on them. Torpedoes leaped off of racks and began to accelerate, many getting shot down but several more managed to connect. Brief flashes erupting in the void, as fighters dueled, the humans absolutely slaughtering the friendly fighters.

Shields rippled and flared as they struggled to keep out the lethal effects of the warheads. One of the Cruisers that had it's plasma particle projector sniped was ripped apart as four disruptor torpedoes impacted, the ship appearing to fly apart in a catastrophic display of fire and shattered glittering metal. Escape pods boiled off of it's flanks as the ship died, it's reactor going up in an eye-watering nova like flash of light and energy. Moments later, another ship this one another cruiser, had a magazine detonate with terrible results, metal and composites shattered as a great eruption of fire burst out of the enemy's hull, the ship breaking apart amidships into two distinct halves.

Seconds later, the remaining human ships salvoed their plasma particle projectors and ten dreadnoughts as well as two super-dreadnoughts vanished in brief puffs of flame of shrapnel. Just like that, a dozen symbols of Turian Hierarchy military strength were completely destroyed.

If anything though, the ferocity of the fighter attack combined with the loss of a Cruiser seemed to enrage the humans who intensified their defensive fire. The surviving Fighters wheeled around, their strikes complete and accelerated to FTL, reappearing within the defensive cauldron of the friendly fleet. Just over two-thirds of their number missing, having been cut down as simply as a scythe slicing through wheat.

* * *

 **0715 Hours**

 **Onboard UNSCN** _ **Pillar of Autumn II**_

"UNSCN _Evergreen's Path_ is down! _Evergreen's Path_ is down!" A bridge tech shouted.

"UNSCN _Winter Twilight_ has been snapped in half!" Another added.

"Shields are down to sixty-eight percent!" A third voice stated.

" _Commodore, all ships are reporting moderate to severe shield drain. Energy projectors are recycling however the_ Evergreen's Path _and_ Winter Twilight _were lost because the enemy managed to hit them just as the shields dropped so they could fire their energy projectors, the feedback loop resulted in both ships losing shields and hardlight barriers._ " Velvet replied.

 _Dammit, guess that leaves us with exactly one option._ "Shut down the energy projectors, reroute power from those weapons to shields. Stand by tactical slipspace, we're going to outmaneuver these bastards." Rueben ordered before spotting a perfect location for a tactical slipspace jump.

" _Aye sir, spooling up FTL._ " Velvet said, the low hum of the slipspace drive beginning to fill the ship.

"Destination sir?" The helmsman asked.

"One hundred thirty thousand kilometers above and behind the enemy fleet. All ships stand-by on all anti-ship weapons save energy projectors." The commodore ordered.

"Aye sir." Came the response from the bridge crew as they leapt to their tasks. Rueben eyed the shield strength gauge, it was steadily dropping, just now beginning to approach forty-five percent, still most of their shield strength had evaporated when five torpedoes with four-dimension shift warheads had slammed into them and detonated.

"Course plotted, sir." The helmsman reported.

"How long will the jump take us?" Rueben asked.

"Five minutes." The helmsman replied.

Rueben nodded, it would have to do then. Five minutes would be just enough time for the enemy to think that they had fled, which would make their reappearance even more shocking. Yes, it would work out quite nicely, plus it would buy even more time for the 2nd Fleet to get here. Mainly because Arctructus Station had received their message and had scrambled 2nd Fleet at 0620 Hours.

But given the size of 2nd Fleet, it was likely that the fleet hadn't gotten underway until 0645 hours. Which meant that they still had a significant amount of time to hold out until the fleet had arrived. But with clever maneuvering, they could leave the enemy fleet scattered and confused, making them easy prey for the 2nd Fleet when they arrived.

At least, that was the hope. But given how these bastards fought, it was highly unlikely that it would occur. They had only broken in the face of overwhelming firepower, which was understandable considering what had occurred, seeing all of your heavies evaporate in a single salvo tended to do that.

" _FTL drive is spun up commodore. Ready to jump on your command._ " Velvet said.

"All ships are to fire one more salvo from their MAC guns and then jump." Rueben ordered.

The crew sprang to their tasks as the order was given out. On the tactical display, a spider web of trajectories reaching out from the UNSC fleet, tiny countdown timers next to them. The humming of the slipspace drive had reached a fever pitch indicating that it was fully charged up and ready to activate on command.

Twelve seconds remained until the MACs would fire.

"MAC system is hot!" The weapons officer shouted.

Three seconds later the countdown timer went from one-to-zero. Within the massive chamber of the Heavy-coil MEFMAC sat a projectile that before the specially tuned mass-reducing fields had engaged had massed some six-hundred metric tons, it now massed a mere one hundred twenty-five metric tons. The combination of twisting plasma-sheathed magnetic rails and extremely powerful magnetic coils grabbed the blunt-nosed, hexagonally shaped projectile and accelerated it to c-fractional velocities.

By the time that the slug was screaming out of the barrel it was going twenty-two megameters per second or twenty-two thousand kilometers per second. It streaked across the void of space, racing through the vacuum, uncaring of its trajectory. It first clipped an enemy ship some three and a quarter seconds after first leaving barrel. A enemy sloop, one hundred eighty meters in length blundered into the shell's path as a brace of torpedoes began leaping from it's launchers. The fairly weak kinetic barriers and armor stood no chance at slowing the shell down enough to stop it, the massive kinetic energy transfer from the clipping ripped the sloop clean in half resulting in crew members, debris, atmosphere, fuel, and ordnance spilling into the void, the bow of the tiny warship vanishing as the torpedoes in the tubes detonated.

Now somewhat deformed and it's velocity reduced to a mere twelve thousand kilometers per second, the slug continued onwards. The next ship it hit would happen some five and half seconds later and in the UNSCN would've been considered a medium frigate, the slug blasted through the ship's armor and kinetic barriers as if they didn't exist. Such was the velocity of the shell that most of its mass vanished as it plowed first through the armor-plating, then through the pressure hull, next was at least a dozen bulkheads before the remains of the projectile burst out of the stern of the hostile which was in the process of tearing itself apart.

"Hostiles Sierra-Nine and Tango-Seven destroyed!" Weapons whooped.

"Jump!" Rueben barked.

The exteriors of the UNSC ships had a purple-blow light flare and ripple over their hulls while their engine blocks erupted with light that pushed the ships forward, uncaring about the massive amount of fire that was hammering them relentlessly. Their energy shields could take this sort of pounding for awhile. Enemy torpedoes that the sloops and corvettes had started launching from one hundred thousand kilometers distant were being sliced to pieces by counter-attack missiles and the ones that slipped through that hellish maelstrom were punched into hazy balls of vapor by the pulse lasers. The _White Plains_ along with the rest of the task force were frantically recovering their fighters as with an explosion of Cherenkov Radiation swirling blue-purple portals erupted in front of the UNSC ships. With surprising speed and grace, the great warships slipped into the portals which promptly snapped shut.

Slipstream Space was a strange place, a pitch black nothingness surrounded the ships as they maneuvered through the elusive dimension, vaguely visible in the far distance was the occasional brief flash of rainbow colored light, known as the Wisps of the Slipstream. However while on visible spectrum, Slipstream Space wasn't the most impressive thing to view, the gravitational, thermal, radiometers, and mass spectrometer sensors painted a vastly different picture.

Battlegroup Autumn "sailed" through a sea of gravitational distortions, inclines, and currents that tried to compress or pull the ship apart. In addition to these gravitational disturbances, the ship also had to contend with areas that was as hot as five hundred degrees centigrade one moment and then negative two hundred fifty degrees centigrade the next. Besides these two factors was radiation, a combination of gamma rays, alpha and beta particles, microwaves, x-rays, and large amounts of Cherenkov radiation was present in the slipstream. Also present was a large cloud of primordial hydrogen that surrounded the ships as they navigated through the dimension.

The _Autumn_ suddenly juddered under an impact. " _Mass impact, starboard side, deck fifteen, section forty. Estimated size, roughly one hundred meters across. Judging by the shatter pattern, it_ was _a comet._ " Velvet announced a moment later.

That was another danger of slipspace, somehow comets and asteroids would enter the slipstream. Most of these rocks were small, no bigger than a hundred fifty meters across, but there was a few monsters that had been spotted in the slipstream, with the largest being a small dwarf planet the size of Ceres. Thus all human ships equipped with Slipspace drives had to meet the durability requirements so that they could take several such impacts from decently sized rocks.

"Twenty seconds till we transition to real space. Sixteen...fifteen...fourteen...thirteen...twelve...eleven...ten...nine...eight...seven...six...five...four...three...two...one...jumping!" The helmsman said and within the _Autumn_ , there was a subtle thrumming sound as the slipspace drive engaged. Ahead of the massive Heavy Cruiser, slipspace seemed to waver before a rapidly expanding crack ripped itself into existence as the slipspace drive worked it's magic. Within picoseconds, a tear between realities had been rent asunder, her fusion torches blazing with brilliant light, the massive Heavy Cruiser burst out of slipstream space...

In perfect position above and behind the enemy fleet, the alien warships were scrambling now, trying to wheel around in order to bring their relatively weak hitting but faster firing mass accelerator cannons to bear. But they were too slow in that manner, their escorts were out of position. Although they were rapidly repositioning in order to cover their heavies with a speed and agility that was frankly impossible for his ships.

"Helm, full forward thrust, bow down forty-five starboard thirteen!" Rueben thundered and the helmsman reacted with impeccable speed. The _Autumn_ shuddered and her bow dropped down as maneuvering thrusters fired, just barely visible at this range were the moving pinpricks of light that indicated enemy ships.

"All ships, fire at will and for effect!" Rueben ordered.

Hell was brought, the _Autumn_ spoke first, the spinally mounted heavy-coil MEFMAC gun throwing it's one hundred twenty-five metric ton slug into the void at twenty-two thousand kilometers per second, this was followed by the ship's heavy railguns voicing their fury, three-metric ton projectiles howling into the inky blackness at fifteen thousand kilometers per second. Barely a half second after the railguns began their firing cycles, every single secondary battery turret that could bear spat lethal purple-blue comets that burned through the void like dogs from hell. Hot on the heels of the plasma coilgun bolts came an avalanche of missiles as a full forty of the _Autumn_ 's Inferno Missile pods fired followed by the torpedo tubes spitting four lethal missiles apiece.

Other ships voiced their own fury, lightmass slugs, Inferno Missiles, MAC shells, and torpedoes flew through the void. Space becoming more fire and steel than actual vacuum. Explosions began dotting the night as hostile ships died, heavy frigate and light destroyer analogues popping like balloons under the hellish onslaught of fire that the UNSC ships were raining down upon them.

Despite this, even as several fast cruiser analogues finally succumbed to the massive onslaught of firepower and broke apart into glittering fragments and puffs of flame. The enemy retaliated, their lightweight and rapid-firing spinal mass accelerators barking righteous fury. Within moments, there was so much metal flying through an area that was at most ninety thousand kilometers apart and closing that words and phrases that were used to describe space such as "void" and "vast uninterrupted distance" simply didn't apply to this section of space anymore.

A scratch formation of corvettes and sloops headed up by a light destroyer blitzed in from starboard, trying to get at _White Plains_ as she launched fighters. The frigate _Tigris_ wasn't having any of it, she spun on her x-axis, angled up against the enemy and unleashed her energy projector, coring the light destroyer in an instant. Lightmass cannons and plasma torpedoes, followed by the laser arrays fired and within a matter of seconds, over half the enemy force was either crippled or outright destroyed.

Two sloops managed to close the distance with the UNSC frigate and launched a brace of torpedoes, the point-defenses downed most of them, but one got through and detonated against her shields which blew out in a brilliant flash. Instantly, several fast cruisers pounced in order to capitalize on the ship's weakness, hammering the great frigate with unrelenting broadsides. The _Tigris_ 's bridge module vanished in an explosion of energy and shrapnel, as the four fast cruisers worked to surround the jinking heavy frigate. Additional breaches began to appear in her armor, but despite that she still had teeth. Her energy projector fired and blew one of tormentors in half in a vibrant display of light and energy that was silent in the vacuum.

A salvo of plasma torpedoes raced in from the _Autumn_ and blotted another fast cruiser from existence. Seeing her chance, the _Tigris_ accelerated to flank speed, her omni-directional hardlight barrier active, she plowed into the last remaining fast cruiser amidships at ramming speed and punched clean through it's hull like a Katana through a rolled up bamboo mat. The frigate's laser arrays ravaged the interior which went up in the cataclysmic flash of a magazine detonation and a reactor breach. Free from her predicament, the _Tigris_ looped back towards the UNSC task force, her bow sporting major damage from the ramming attack that she had made.

Finally the great strain that the _Autumn_ 's shields were under became too much and they failed, while this really wasn't a good thing even for UNSCN Heavy Cruisers, they still had lots of armor. Thus the _Autumn_ could look this danger in the face and just cackle, her unique superstructure and armor design meant that she could have ninety percent of her armor destroyed and every single compartment open to the vacuum, including the bridge and keep on fighting. The immense titan of war simply angled up against the three enemy heavy cruiser analogues and six fast cruiser analogues that were whaling on her with almost everything they had before going to work, not that it mattered the remains of at least a full division of light destroyer analogues surrounded the enemy cruisers.

A Heavy Cruiser analogue died as a energy projector beam cut a great swath through the ship's hull, the ezero core blowing in the distinct black-dark blue flash that instantly atomized most of the ship and flung the remains away like a toy. The enemy is undaunted in their attempts to kill the heavy cruiser, their mass accelerators continued to throw shells into the void in a frantic attempt to destroy the invincible juggernaut.

Moments later a fast cruiser analogue met a grim fate as four heavy railgun rounds tear into its kinetic barriers, followed by fifty Inferno Missiles that managed to slip through it's impressive point-defenses. The resulting nuclear shape charge blasts ripped the ship into unrecognizable chunks.

Seconds after that another Heavy Cruiser analogue burned from the inside out as four plasma torpedoes speared it's hull. Armor, hull, interior bulkheads, and decking boiled away as the skeletal structure of the warship became visible. Great plumes of fire spewing out into the void as the flames fed upon the interior atmosphere of the ship. Escape pods raced away from the ship's flanks as the frame of the once proud warship collapsed in on itself as the plasma fires that were burning in the ship's hull robbed them of too much strength. The ship broke apart into three large pieces, flames happily consuming the ship.

An enemy torpedo _somehow_ managed to slip through the Cruiser's point-defenses on the port-side, crashing against the omni-directional hardlight barrier which just barely managed to make the intercept. The barrier nearly overloaded as the effects of the warp missile took it's hold, the follow up broadside from an enemy Light Destroyer analogue shattered that barrier. The next three salvos flattened themselves against immensely thick battleplate but the outer layers had been molecularly comprised. Thus deep non-penetrating rents appeared in the armored flank of the human warship as the shells punched past the molecularly comprised layers only to run into the layers of the honeycombed and cross-braced armor that wasn't comprised.

Twelve plasma shots lanced out from the _Autumn_ 's secondary turrets, the enemy light-destroyer analogue didn't stand a chance. Shields and armor were effortlessly burned through by the plasma rounds, interior atmosphere ignited as the spectacularly hot plasma made contact with the much cooler air inside the hull. The warship appeared to bulge out amidships before simply blowing itself apart in a vibrant display of metal and composites.

"Target Delta-five destroyed!" The chief tactical officer shouted.

"Reloads for missile pods one through fifty complete, reloads for missile pods fifty-one through one fifty in progress, all remaining missile pods ready to fire." Another member of the tactical team reported.

The _Autumn_ rocked hard, the scream of tearing metal was audible even on the bridge as several enemy slugs blasted one of the secondary turrets apart and punched into the Heavy Cruiser's armored hull. "Turret six has been completely destroyed and turret five has been immobilized, we got a hull breach deck twenty-two, section fifty, we're holed!" The head of shipboard operations shouted as the hull breach alarm wailed.

" _Damage control parties and medical teams have been dispatched to the affected areas, commodore._ " Velvet replied.

Rueben grunted in acknowledgement, the hit had damaged the _Autumn_ 's combat effectiveness but hadn't dealt any serious structural damage. "All ships spool up FTL, stand by tactical slipspace, relocation position two hundred thousand kilometers from current position, inclination negative three-two degrees relative to the enemy fleet. Assume formation bravo-two in transit." He ordered.

The slipspace drive of the name ship of the _Autumn_ class Heavy Cruisers hummed to life as it built up a charge, suffusing the air with one of readiness to get out of this brawl in order to regroup. It was ironically a sentiment that Rueben agreed with, because most of the frigates were reporting either downed shields or that their shields were starting to suffer pinpoint breaches which was allowing the occasional shell to flatten itself against the eighty-centimeters of Kavacha Battleplate that the frigates were equipped with. However several were also starting to report that they were taking major damage, with the most notable being the _Tigris_ , with her bridge module completely wiped out, her energy projector down for repairs, twenty of her sixty Inferno Missile Pods out of commission, and six of her ten lightmass cannons wrecked for starters.

" _Drives across the fleet are spooled up commodore._ " Velvet announced.

"Course plotted, sir!" The helmsman shouted.

"Jump!"

A radiation spike emanated from the human warships as their slipspace drives engaged. The human warships promptly bolted into the portals which snapped shut behind them, plunging the powerful battle vessels back into the elusive eleven dimensions. Effectively ending the second phase of the battle.

Commodore Rueben glanced at the chronometer and cursed, that had been just a mere thirty-two minutes. He would have to fight several more skirmishes like that just to buy enough time for 2nd Fleet to arrive but considering the hammering that they had taken during those thirty minutes. "All ships, get me a damage report." he ordered before leaning back in his crash couch.

How many men had died during that phase of the battle? Several hundred good men and women easily. Still, he had to reinforce the battered soldiers on Shanxi, which meant that he had to take a risk and deploy the forces the Marine forces and the Spartan-V fireteam that he had on hand.

" _Sir initial damage reports are coming in, our destroyers for the most part had their shields pushed to the absolute limit but apart from the occasional pinpoint breach, no ship lost their shields. However they are reporting that their lightmass cannons are overheating and have been forced to cutback their rate of fire. Our frigates are another matter, they all lost shields and suffered damage, hull breaches, weapon mounts knocked out of commission, the works. The only good news is that the_ White Plains _didn't even have her shields drop below fifty percent._ " Velvet reported.

The XO swore quietly, as did any member of the bridge crew who heard Velvet's report. But Rueben knew that it could've been worse, much worse. Particularly if the enemy had more of a reliance on missiles rather than their mass accelerator cannons, then they could've put enough warheads in the air to easily overwhelm the point-defenses of any warship. As it stands, space had gotten so chaotic and crowded that even with AIs running the targeting algorithms, that it had proven to be difficult to tell the difference between a chunk of debris and a torpedo drifting in using precision firing of it's thrusters to maneuver and line up a solid shot before firing its main engines and boosting in for the kill.

"Sir, may I make a suggestion?" The XO asked.

"What is it?" Rueben replied.

"How about instead of doing hit and run strikes like this, which would allow the enemy to wear us down through pure attrition we try and play keep away with the bastards?" The XO suggested.

"It might work, but you have to remember that the enemy is far superior at acceleration and maneuverability than we are. Our ships can't match theirs in those fields, even though we obviously have more armor and firepower per ton than they do." Rueben replied.

The wisps of slipspace surrounded them, the _Autumn_ prowled forth her reactor thrumming, still it was time to take the kid gloves off for real and show these bastards what true firepower looked like. "Stand by to launch all dropships and a fighter escort, two wings of Claymores are to cover the dropships as they head towards Shanxi additional escort will be provided by four squadrons of UCAVs. All ships, _Terminators_ are authorized, authentication code zero-five-three-six-two-seven-niner-niner-papa-tango." the commodore ordered.

If the _Shiva_ class warhead used that was used on UNSC torpedoes was a hand-grenade, than the _Terminator_ class warhead used on dedicated long-range missiles was a "damage pack" of C-12 explosive. The words "bad day" didn't even _begin_ to describe the amount of devastation that these nukes could bring onto a foe.

A rippling tear erupted in front of the _Autumn_ and the heavy cruiser burst out of slipspace. "Safeties removed from our _Terminators_ , ready to fire on your command!" The chief weapons officer announced.

Rueben merely nodded, filing that information away. A nasty surprise for the enemy to be sure. "All dropships and assigned fighter and UCAV squadrons launch!" he ordered as the tactical plot updated, showing their new position in relation to the reforming enemy fleet.

* * *

Spartacus watched impassively as the human warships burst back into real space after committing one of their tactical slipspace jumps. That duel though had been ugly, the remains of over two dozen warships littered the area, reduced to dead drifting hulks, banks of shrapnel, and clouds of vaporized metal.

They had timed their escape perfectly too, they had partially encircled the enemy fleet and then they had jumped out in order to reposition. Leaving the 5th Strike Fleet a little disorganized and somewhat out of position to setup an attack run or intercept course. Which meant that they first had to reorganize the fleet before they could setup an attack.

"More activity, sir, the enemy is launching dropships and fighters to cover them." A bridge tech called as the tactical plot updated. Bulky craft were launching, their engines aglow as they maneuvered and started heading towards the planet. Their engines glowing with power.

Spartacus grunted, that move had been really clever.

"Radiological alarms!" Another bridge officer shouted.

That got Spartacus's attention right damn quick, the one thing that this conflict had taught them was that these people absolutely _loved_ throwing nukes around like they were a Jumpa Sticks.

"Estimated yield is five g-g-gigatons." The officer replied, stuttering over the yield estimate. A wave of shocked and disbelieving mutters swept across the bridge of the _Archer_ , that included her acting CO. A nuke of that size, it was hard to believe that anything that big could exist.

 _Then again, what we've seen these humans performing. I guess I am not surprised._ He thought as he looked over the data that was pouring in. Things that had been considered outdated didn't mean that they were really powerful in their own right, a fact that had been proven a number of times today.

Still, the fleet was down roughly two hundred thirty ships, losses that were absolutely unheard of in this time. But that was before he had seen a Expeditionary Fleet annihilated, thus things most certainly had changed.

That said, that duel had resulted in the four remaining cruisers having numerous wounds riddling their forms, with two of them leaving a trail of debris behind their heavily damaged hulls as they maneuvered through the void, plus another ship was outright missing it's bridge, which indicated that the brawl hadn't been a completely one-sided massacre. At best, they likely had one mission-kill, because having the bridge wiped out like that tended to completely disrupt the chain of command onboard a warship, although Spartacus suspected that the ship had a secondary CIC deep within the armored hull, that said it was likely that the command structure had been disrupted somewhat.

* * *

 **0750 Hours, February 11th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Near Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi**

 **Onboard Pelican Gamma-Three-Five-Zero**

The interior of the Pelican Dropship was surprisingly silent as the craft raced towards the surface of Shanxi. A full platoon of UNSC Marines lay in it's passenger bay, checking weapons and equipment, one of these Marines was Private Ben Fletcher. His rifle, one of the many like it rested in his hands, having been well cared for. The Jackhammer Launcher that he was magnetically locked to his back, the weapon capable of reducing most tanks to unrecognizable scrap with just one shot.

Each Pelican Dropship was carrying an entire platoon of soldiers within its belly. The only noise audible to the soldiers they were carrying was the hum of their reactors as they pushed themselves towards Shanxi and the soft hum of soldiers talking as they exchanged jokes and small talk.

The anticipation within the dropships was building, Private Fletcher knew that the Dropship he rode in was just one part of the 524th Marine Expeditionary Unit knew what their task was, to reinforce the battered UNSC forces on the ground, still it was his first combat deployment.

The Pelican quivered as it flew through what was likely a cloud of vaporized metal. It was nothing that the craft couldn't take, the Private knew. But the sudden motion of the Pelican quivering as it flew through the cloud was still unsettling.

Several minutes passed as the dropships continued to burn hard towards the planet.

" _Beginning atmospheric insertion, here we go!_ " The pilot shouted as the pelican angled upwards slightly. Then she began to rock and rattle as her frame kissed the upper edges of Shanxi's atmosphere, more sound beginning filter through the hull. The outer edge's beginning to glow hot as the dropship hurtled downwards at high velocities.

Heat began to seep into the Pelican's troop compartment, but the young private along with everyone else didn't notice it, the climate control in their armor compensated for the heat rise almost immediately.

The minutes ticked by, the noise of the engines, the rattle of turbulence, the howl of the wind, it began to fill the compartment of the Pelican as it descended. Suddenly the sharp forty-five degree nose up maneuver suddenly became a five degree descent as the ungainly craft raced towards the surface,

" _Lancer Squadron, this is Warwolf Actual! Be advised, your LZ is hot! Repeat LZ is hot! Enemy MANPADs, small arms, armor, arty, as well as fixed and mobile artillery pieces. Most of the ack-ack is busy making life hell for our fighters but a few will likely get attracted by you since your hurtling in from orbit._ " A rough contralo of a voice said over the radio.

" _Roger that, Marines get tactical, your LZ is going to be hot!_ " The pilot yelled.

New sounds filtered in, explosions of flak, the sharp clatter of shrapnel bouncing off the thick armor, the muted explosion of a SAM impacting the Hardlight barrier, the retaliatory shriek of a missile leaving it's pod, the rapid-fire thumps of countermeasures deploying. It blended together as music that was all encompassing around them.

Ben found himself beginning to sing. "He was just a rookie trooper and he surely shook with fright…." he sang in a timid voice, the tune slightly off key. The lyrics faded into the background of combat that now surrounded the Pelican dropship.

Another marine, joined in her lighter voice picking up the tune. "He checked on his equipment and made sure his helm was tight…" she said firmly, more on key with the lyrics.

Ben gained the courage and started the next line, additional marines joining in as the orchestra of war sang around their dropship, making the song audible to everyone in the craft without the use of the sensitive receptors in the helmets that they wore. "He had to sit and listen to those awful engines roar…"

The chorus came and nearly every single marine in the pelican boomed out. "He ain't gonna drop no more!"

"Gory, gory, what a helluva way to die; gory, gory, what a helluva way to die! Gory, gory what a helluva way to die, and he ain't gonna drop no more!" the Marines belted out the chorus.

Inside the cockpit, of the Pelican an alarm warbled on it's grim tune. With a brief firing of the bulky dropship's belly thrusters the dropship lurched upward, firing decoys. The SAMs took the bait and tracked the tactical active launchable decoys and punched them out of existence, the alien launcher responsible was then targeted and annihilated by a pair of ANVILs. The cockpit crew of the Pelican adding their own voices to the song.

"'Is everybody happy?' cried the sergeant looking up; our hero feebly answered 'yes' and then they sealed him up; he dropped into the frozen void, his thruster pack unlocked! He ain't gonna drop no more!"

The pelican in formation behind Lancer Two got hit by enemy ack-ack, shells smashing past Titanium-Tungsten metal foam armor with ease, pulping half the flight crew and filling the troop compartment with shrapnel, turning it into a slaughterhouse inside. The next stream of enemy rounds ripped most of its left wing off. The dropship, now doomed folded up like a kite and fell from the skies trailing fire and smoke, becoming a cartwheeling wreck upon the ground that saw it's troop compartment breaking open, throwing broken bodies everywhere.

"He counted long, he counted loud, he waited for the shock; he felt the cold, he felt the heat, he felt the awful drop; the steel of his reserve cracked out and flipped him on his top! He ain't gonna drop no more!" The Marines continued to sing, unaware of what had occurred behind them.

The red light snapped on, filling the troop compartment with harsh red light. The Marines within standing up and readying themselves for combat, the bonds that were forged in fire ready to be quenched in blood as they continued to sing unabated. "The risers wrapped around his neck, the panels cracked his dome; restraining straps were tangled up around his skinny bones; his vacuum suit became his shroud; he hurtled to the ground! He ain't gonna drop no more!"

A third SAM and a sustained barrage of SPAAG fire crashed against the Hardlight barrier of the Pelican Dropship. The pilot advanced the throttles just a little bit more so that they could get to the ground that much quicker.

"The days he lived and laughed and loved went flashing through his mind; he thought about the girl back home, the one he'd left behind; he thought about the medic corps and wondered what they'd find! He ain't gonna drop no more!"

An enemy MANPAD screamed upwards, the ECO saw the incoming and initiated full defensive jamming. The guidance system on the lightweight missile promptly crashed and went into moonshot, racing past the Pelican. With a nod and quick quip to her pilot, the ECO informed of the missile being defeated.

"The medevac was on the scene, the Hogs were running wild; the corpsmen jumped and screamed with glee, rolled up their sleeves and smiled; for it had been a week or more since last a pod had failed! He ain't gonna drop no more!" The loadmaster/crew chief finally joined in the chorus of singing voices as the Pelican braved the heavy flak that seemed to fill the sky with more steel than air.

"He hit the ground, the sound was splat, the blood went spurting high; his comrades, they were heard to say 'a helluva way to die'; he lay there, rolling 'round in the welter of his gore! He ain't gonna drop no more!" Everyone on the Pelican chorused, the words filling the soldiers within courage.

A laser blast split the air and caught the Pelican in-front of Lancer Two, splitting it's hull open in an instant as it muscled it's way past the ablative anti-laser coating that was included in the Pelican's armor, flashing vaporizing most of the soldiers inside in an instant. Three more dark red beams followed the first and the dropship exploded as it's fuel and ammunition stores ignited, transforming into a ball of shattered glittering titanium that used to be the craft erupted outwards in all directions.

"There was blood upon the risers, there were brains upon the chute; intestines were a-dangling from his ODST suit; he was a mess, they picked him and poured out his boots. He ain't gonna drop no more!" The Marines had nearly finished the song, the fear that had filled their hearts now replaced with courage and determination, while in the cockpit, the fixed laser AA site was finally found as it cut a Raven from the sky, the beam detonating it's missiles and fuel. Tiny notes on it's projected capabilities appeared around the target.

"Gory, gory, what a helluva way to die; gory, gory what a helluva way to die. Gory, gory, what a helluva way to die, he ain't gonna drop no more!" As the Marines finished the song, two missiles leaped from the Pelican. The mount swatted out one of existence but the second smashed past kinetic barriers and armor before detonating immolating the thing.

They were Devil Dogs, humanity's finest warriors. They would either take the city of Badate back from the aliens or they would die trying. They had to for it was their job.

* * *

 **AN: Will this went a little long, still I hope you guys like it.**

 **The ODST version of "Gory Gory" belongs to Acceptmyusernamealready as seen in the first version of Greenhorn, a Kantai Collection/Halo Fusion Fic that's pretty damn good. The version used can be found in the first version in the story thread on Space Battles.**

 **One thing that should be noted in this chapter is that I am still trying my best to figure out how to write large scale space battles, so if the tactics or ordered used didn't seem right than that's my fault with inexperience on the matter but I'll try to improve it.**


	11. War for Shanxi: Part Three

**AN: Holy shit, you guys are amazing! This is my first story to crack 100,000 views on FFN.**

 **Chloe: Thanks!**

 **Guest1: *Rolls eyes* If it's a piece of trash and you don't like it, then why are you reading it?**

 **Carlosxvx: First off, thanks, that's high praise to receive as a humble writer. As for various Spartan Generations, well Edward Buck actually put it the best:**

 **"When I say walking gods, I mean the Spartan-IIs. Like the old Greek Titans in the way that they live among us but are literally head and shoulders better in every way. And they're just about as hard to kill. The fact we lost so many of them during the Covenant War tells you something about how horrific that conflict was. The soldiers in the SPARTAN-III program were more like your standard gods of myth and legend, the Titans' kids. Hermes and Apollo and Aphrodite and such. If the Spartan-IIs are more powerful than you can imagine, Spartan-IIIs are probably just inside your limits. The Spartan-IVs—my new designation—are like demigods then, the offspring of the real gods. Think Hercules. We can pass for regular people most of the time—something folks would generally have a hard time mistaking the earlier generations for—but inside, we're far more than that."**

 **As Halopedia puts it, comparing a Spartan-IV to a Spartan-II is like comparing a superstar athlete to a "near supernatural monster". The Spartan-Vs, thanks to a combination of genetic, cybernetic, and chemical augmentations are around as good as the old S-IIIs, although a S-II will still kick their ass.**

 **Guest2: Marcross? Hmmm, I am considered adding the closest thing that the UNSC has to a Destroid as seen in Halo: Legends Prototype.**

 **Guest3: Thanks!**

 **OORAH!: Thank you, it most certainly takes skill to get this sort of stuff down correctly. One of the things that's tricky to balance is getting the correct amount of firepower, while also getting the personal perspective from the soldiers. As for the design of the Talon, I looked at other Super Heavy Tanks from other universes, such as the Baneblade and real tanks that actually existed. For example the idea of giving the Talon a pike nose came from post-WWII Soviet Heavy Tanks, JS-3, JS-7, JS-8/T-10, this design increases the chances of having a shot bounce off the armor at the front of the hull. The Turian Hellion MBT, while it's very crap against UNSC tanks, is a hover tank using ezero anti-grav tech. As for designs, well using an anti-gravity drive you get the most maneuverability but I would say that at most you could use a 115mm gun and even that would be pushing it so a 105 is more likely, a wheeled design while it would have it's own advantages would be more suited for IFVs and such because your limited by the weight you can put on the tires which means that tanks are more likely to use anti-grav tech, a tracked design has the least speed and maneuverability but the most stability so you can mount some really big guns and much heavier armor. As for the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers? In my mind they receive minor augmentations and gene therapy, but the training they get make them this badass combo of US Navy SEALs, Marine Raiders, SAS, and Spetsnaz. However, ODSTs are Marine Special Forces, now the UNSC Army does have its own Special Forces, the Rangers which are a badass combo of Rangers, Green Berets, and ODST Bullfrogs however they have a different specialty compared to ODSTs which is using a jetpack to get around. As for using the Talon? You got my permission, just make sure to credit the design to me.**

 **Anyways, let's get this started.**

* * *

 **0825 Hours, February 11th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, Planet Shanxi**

 **Pelican Gamma-Three-Five-Zero**

" _Greenlight! Go! Go! Go!_ " The captain roared the Pelican came to a stop hovering one and half meters above the ground, the boarding ramp lowering.

The platoon within stormed out of the dropship and into the mouth of hell, on Private Fletcher's HUD, multiple hostiles were outlined in red. They were firing from good cover, the subtle _brrt_ _brrt_ _brrt_ of the alien small arms was all around. The staccato roar of the dropship's 70mm Mass Accelerator blended with the heavy crackle of the dual heavy plasma cannon pods slung under the wings, as the weapons belched hate at the enemy.

Ben dove behind cover, the audible alarm for his kinetic barriers warbling in his ears. He carefully poked out of cover and opened fire, the MA7B Plasma Rifle unleashing a hellish roar as it spat lethal energy bolts.

Two other Marines took up position behind the same bit of cover as he was and one opened fire with a plasma rifle but the other opened fire with a sleek M-1000 SAW, but at ranges they were fighting at, roughly three hundred meters was beyond the effective range of their plasma weapons. That wasn't the case with the SAW, it spat 7.62x51mm FMJ NATO caseless rounds at a rate of fire of nine hundred rounds per minute.

Heavy machine gun fire swept across their position, Ben was forced to duck unless he wanted his head to get torn off. The Marine next to him unfortunately was too slow in ducking back into cover, the heavy mass accelerated projectiles ripped through her shields as if they weren't their and punched a line of wide bloody holes in her chest, the sheer velocity and weight of the slugs caused a spray of blood to erupt out of her back. She flopped to the ground, the SAW that she had carried clattered to the ground next to her corpse.

"Fuck!" Ben yelled.

"We're pinned down, we can't advance. That machine gun has our number!" The marine next to Ben shouted, his IFF identified him as Private Jonathan Irons.

"No shit, I got my Jackhammer launcher, but I got to expose myself for far too long in order to fire the damn thing." Ben shouted as the machine gun continued to sweep back and forth across the terrain, forcing Marines, Army Troopers, and Militiamen into cover unless they wanted to get riddled.

There was a loud _crack_ somewhere behind them and the machine gun went silent. "Advance!" Ben yelled vaulting over cover and serpentining across fifty meters of open ground. The skyline of Badate loomed on the horizon, the majority of the early multi-story permanent structures still stood though most of multi-story prefab structures had been destroyed.

The outskirts of the city however were spitting fire at the attackers almost constantly. Somewhere to Ben's left, a Paladin MBT fired it's main gun, the incineration shell flew into a house and detonated. Blowing the structure apart in a multitude of one massive main explosion and several secondaries, the remains of the building disintegrating into ash.

A moment later there was a thunderous _boom_ and a blinding blue-white streak lanced out from the alien lines and crashed into the Paladin's shields, which blew out with a vibrant spark, the round then effortlessly caved the tank's armor and detonated inside, flames erupted out of the hull and turret, rapidly engulfing the vehicle.

"Enemy tank!" Jonathan yelled.

Ben quickly spotted the thing. It was absolutely huge, the size of a small building easily, the sponson mounted machine guns, with additional machine guns mounted on small turrets on the hull and sponsons of the vehicle to provide full coverage. The massive rear-mounted turret had a main and coaxial gun that was absolutely huge, far too large for any tank to mount, while mounted on top of a secondary turret was a smaller turret with what appeared to be machine guns or maybe grenade launchers.

"That's not a tank, that's a fucking super-heavy tank!" He yelled.

"No shit! Hit it with your Jackhammer!" Jonathan shouted as the enemy super-heavy tank's main gun fired, a booming crash that seemed to shake the ground and the sky with its voice. The shell detonated above a squad of Militiamen that were in cover, the ensuing blast and shrapnel completely shredded them beyond all recognition, reducing them to a bloody smear upon the ground.

The massive tank opened fire with everything it had, a veritable river of tracers began to sweep back and forth across the human lines, pinning them down. Pulse and plasma rounds slammed ineffectually against kinetic barriers and armor, a Paladin tank fired it's main gun. The shot carved a deep furrow into the tank's frontal armor as it skipped off the pike nose and then promptly punched a big hole into a nearby building.

"Right!" Ben replied before setting his plasma rifle down and unslinging the Jackhammer Launcher, he flicked the safety off and activated to the link to his HUD before bringing the twin tube rocket launcher up to his shoulder.

The launcher rested firmly on his shoulder but it was just out of range to achieve lock-on. With a thought, Ben activated the two-power smart-link scope that the missile launcher came with. The enemy tank seemed to leap forwards and the lock-on tone started playing in his helmet, becoming a constant growl within a matter of seconds.

"Backblast area, clear!" Ben shouted.

"Backblast area, clear!" Jonathan echoed.

Ben pulled the trigger, the launcher jerked slightly as the brief kicker motor fired with a _bwhiss_ , the rocket throwing itself clear of the tube and angling upwards before with a mighty _whoosh_ , the main engine fired and the missile streaked into the air, climbing rapidly. It reached a point that it's microchip brain decided to commence the attack, the warhead nosed over and dove.

It slammed into the top of the tank and detonated, the fusion-enhanced shaped charge liquified armor with it's incredible heat as well as punching past armor with a liquid molten jet. A large explosion ripped through the tank, flames exploding outward from every hatch and completely engulfing the tank.

"Threat destroyed!" Ben shouted as he slung the Jackhammer and scooped up his MA7.

"You two ready to move?" Ben turned and spotted Corporal Brandt.

"Yessir!" Ben and Jonathan answered.

"We've lost Monica, sir. Enemy HMG swept across our position and she couldn't duck behind cover in time." Ben added.

An quartet of enemy rockets shrieked over their heads and impacted something behind them, detonating with a roar. In retaliation a sustained stream of gauss rounds raced over their heads.

"Dammit, listen, the Pelican containing the Headquarters section for our company got shot down by enemy ack-ack on the way in and second platoon's Pelican bought it as well." Brandt replied.

"Fucking hell." Jonathan muttered.

"Exactly, anyway, advance! Let's show these bastards while the UNSC Marines are regarded as humanity's finest soldiers" Brandt barked.

"OORAH!" Ben and Jonathan replied.

"Let's go!" Brandt ordered and the three marines broke cover and advanced, bounding from cover to cover, firing their plasma rifles. Forcing the aliens to remain hunkered down unless they wanted their head to be torn off. But it seemed that there was just too many nooks and crannies for the bastards to hide in.

Mass accelerator fire cracked, coughed, and rattled from every possible spot that could possibly hold an enemy.

"Shit!" Jonathan yelled as sustained burst of mass accelerator fire stitched across kinetic barriers, downing them in less than three seconds and punching a noticeable line of divots into his armor. The marine dove behind cover, Ben and Brandt following him into a shell crater.

"We gotta start clearing out these buildings otherwise this is going to take forever!" Brandt snarled as he fired a burst from his rifle.

A Paladin fired it's main gun in the background, a massive thumping roar that shook the ground, it's target an enemy APC burst apart like a toy. In retaliation, two rockets crash against the shields of the MBT, followed by a blinding red flash that creates a ear-rending _bang_ as the shields collapse and the outer layers of armor flash vaporize, leaving a glowing scar in the tank's armor.

"Agreed, this is going to suck." Jonathan replied in a tone that indicated he wasn't happy. Indeed, close-quarters fighting in situations such as this, it depended not only the specifications of your armor and shields nor the capabilities of your weapon, but also the speed of your reflexes.

It basically meant that whoever pulled the trigger first through either superior skill or luck, would be the winner. That was something that Ben didn't really like, he didn't really have the skills cut out for going to building-to-building.

"Ready?" Brandt yelled.

Somewhere behind them a heavy plasma cannon opened fire, a long stream of energy bolts scythed into a building on their left. Punching great holes in the building that were surrounded by semi-molten material, immediately a pair of enemy heavy machine guns fell silent. The fates of the weapons and their crews left little for one to imagine, plasma cannons had no problem reducing someone to something that couldn't be recognized as having been a living being.

"Ready!" Jonathan replied.

"Ready!" Ben replied.

"Let's go!" Brandt ordered before speaking over the comm. "This fireteam Charlie, 1st Squad, First Platoon, A Company, we're engaging in room-to-room combat, for the love of fuck please don't drop the building on us!"

The three marines broke cover, braving heavy machine gun fire. They ran to the closest building. "Prepare to breach!" Brandt ordered.

Ben pulled out an stun grenade and thumbed the activation switch, thanks to the impact fuse it wouldn't detonate in his hand. The thunder of the enemy weapons was incredible, hyper-velocity cracks complimented the subtle _brrts_ of their weapons firing, which revealed the true lethality of their weapons.

"Breach!" Brandt barked.

At that command, Jonathan kicked the door _hard_ , his strength augmentated by the electrostatic muscle fibers in his Hardsuit. It meant that when a Marine wanted to, they could apply a shit ton of force to something which was useful when kicking or punching things. Thus the door flew off its hinges and impacted the opposite wall with a loud _clang_!

Moments later, Ben tossed the flashbang in and it detonated with a thunderclap roar and a blinding flash of light. An instant later, the three marines charged in, as a pair of dazed aliens trying to bring their weapons to bear.

They didn't even get close to doing so for three plasma rifles spoke as one. The powerful three-round bursts of indigo colored plasma bolts burned through kinetic barriers and then through armor optimized to stop kinetics thus it didn't stand a chance at stopping the energy bolts. One alien dropped without a sound, it's chest eviscerated by the lethal energy while the second one dropped shrieking in agony as the plasma bolts carved a wound that was a handspan across in it's torso.

Three more aliens burst into the room through the door that led to the kitchen, their weapons raised. The Marines and vaguely avian like aliens opened fire at the sametime, the roar of plasma weapons briefly clashed with the subtle _brrt_ of mass accelerator weapons.

"I've lost shields!" Ben yelled as the last alien hit the ground with a thud, it's corpse a mangled and smoking ruin, the stench of burned meat filled the air.

"Same here, those weapons sure pack a punch." Jonathan replied.

"Check the kitchen and dining room in the back, go!" Brandt ordered over comm.

The three marines burst into the kitchen and swept the room. "Clear left!" Ben yelled.

"Clear right!" Jonathan added.

"Clear center!" Brandt replied.

"All clear!" Ben said.

The entire house shook, a massive explosion roared over the battlefield somewhere. Dust fell from the ceiling while above them the alien machine gun continued to roar it's defiance. The whine of plasma fire, the _brrt_ of the alien weapons, thump of detonations, it continued to blend together into something that might be considered music.

"Into the dining room, move!"

The three marines stormed forward, Corporal Brandt had just cleared the doorway that led into the dining room when with a unearthly roar, as a shotgun discharged. Brandt was thrown to the side like a ragdoll, most of his right arm simply pulverised beyond recognition, blood flying from a half-dozen puncture wounds in his chest. His vital signs going flat.

Ben dove into the room in a combat roll, he came up, Plasma Rifle ready. He fired just as the alien did, the blast flattened his recharged kinetic barriers and stinging pain bloomed in his torso as several hyper-velocity pellets managed to penetrate his armor.

The alien suffered even worse, the avalanche of plasma had punched a hole almost two and half handspans wide all the way through it's torso. The sizzle of blood near the boiling point filled the air while the smell of burned meat and gristle added to the carnage.

The threat indicator on his HUD flashed: _Danger_. Ben leaped backwards as another shotgun blast ripped through room, the floor where he had just been seemingly shattered as the hyper velocity pellets ripped into it.

"Ben!" Jonathan yelled and stormed into the room, his plasma rifle blazing. There was a gurgled cry followed by a thud. "Clear!" he shouted.

"I am hit!" Ben wheezed, the pain starting to hit him. He staggered to the ground, his hands already in motion, going to the hardcase on his left thigh that contained his personal trauma kit. He opened and took out the can of biofoam that was stored within. After removing the can's safety pin, he placed the applicator into the injection port in his armor and pushed it into his skin before activating it and released its contents.

"You good?" Jonathan asked as Ben tossed away the spent can.

"I am good for a couple of hours." Ben hissed in reply as the pain from his wounds were numbed by the biofoam. Thing was though, he only had a couple of hours before the biofoam would start breaking down.

The building shook again as another massive detonation rumbled in the distance. This one was powerful enough to cause the tableware and windows that hadn't been ruined already to rattle.

" _This is fireteam alpha and bravo of 1st Squad, First Platoon, A company! We're pinned down by an enemy HMG nest!_ " A voice shouted over the comms, an HMG nest getting highlighted on the HUDs of the two Marines. An HMG nest that happened to be on the 2nd floor above them.

"Let's get that HMG!" Jonathan said and Ben nodded.

The two Marines moved through the house, quickly ascending the stairs that was in the common room, they were greeted with a short hallway that had three doors. Prefab houses such as this typically had two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. Up here however, the roar of the alien heavy machine gun was incredibly loud, even through the hearing protection.

"Judging by the sound, the machine gun nest is in the second bedroom. Although, we should check the first bedroom just to be safe." Jonathan whispered over the comm.

"Agreed, let's not get flanked, rifles or do we use grenades?" Ben whispered back over the same comm.

"Rifles, don't discharge your underbarrel in here otherwise I'll have your ass. No handheld grenades either." Jonathan replied.

"Got it." Ben said.

Another detonation shook the building as the soldiers advanced. Jonathan carefully peeked inside and saw two alien soldiers firing methodically at advancing human forces, with a third waiting for him. They were in armor whose hard plates appeared to be similar to UNSC Guardian Hardsuits in thickness.

The alien opened fire, it's rifle unleashing a hellish roar. Jonathan jerked his head back as holes appeared in the opposite wall. The alien shifted it's fire and the wall between Jonathan and it began to seemingly come apart, the Marine's kinetic barriers flared vibrantly as they reduced the mass of the rounds to the point where they couldn't penetrate the armor. But when the shots impacted, they still had a fair amount of kinetic energy, which was absorbed by the armor.

Ben yanked an M11 Plasma-Frag grenade off his belt and primed it. "Fire in the hole!" he yelled before tossing it in. The grenade bounced off the floor and a half second later, it detonated with blinding gold-white flash and whistle of shrapnel, the floor bucked wildly while the sound of rending material along with the enormous crash of debris hitting the floor indicated just how devastating such a weapon was when used against prefab structures.

"Jesus!" Jonathan breathed as he peeked inside and saw the carnage that the lethal device had wrought. Part of the wall that connected to the next room and floor had collapsed, with the exterior wall having been blown out, what remained of the floor and walls had a minor glow to them indicative of the extreme heat that the grenade had unleashed.

"Next room, let's go." Jonathan added after his shock wore off.

Inside the next bedroom, the crew of the alien heavy machine gun were just starting to shake off their own shock. Thus they had no chance to react when the two UNSC marines burst into the room, in fact one of them managed little more than shout of warning in an alien tongue before the roar of plasma rifles filled the room.

* * *

 **0838 Hours, February 11th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Shanxi-Theta System, Shanxi III, near Planet Shanxi**

 **Onboard UNSCN** _ **Pillar of Autumn II**_

" _The_ Excalibur _is reporting that they've been forced to shutdown the main reactor and that the two secondary reactors have suffered major damage, to make matters worse her slipspace drive has been destroyed._ " Velvet reported as the _Autumn_ quivered under a Mass Accelerator shell impact.

"Inferno Missile Pods eighteen through thirty are offline commodore, point-defenses are operating at fifty percent." A bridge tech added.

Suddenly a short lived but blinding flash filled the bridge viewports. "What the hell was that?!" Rueben demanded.

" _Zeus' Spear_ has been destroyed with all hands!" A tech shouted in response.

Rueben glanced at the tactical screen and cursed, sure enough the marker for the _Daring_ class Heavy Destroyer wasn't on the screen, worse there was no markers for escape pods, that was an additional three thousand or so letters he would have to write to families. "How the hell did that happen?" he demanded, shocked at the death of the Heavy Destroyer.

The _Autumn_ rumbled as she spat her reply against the enemy ships into the void. Missiles and a MAC shell streaking away from the Heavy Cruiser which was taking a beating.

" _Lucky shot sir, it bisected her main reactor._ " Velvet supplied.

"Sonofabitch!" Rueben hissed under his breath.

They had reengaged almost immediately after launching the dropships and although the aliens hadn't managed to pin them down, they were almost constantly engaged now. It meant that he had to be careful, but considering that with the exception of the _White Plains_ that all of the ships had lost shields and thus the damage was starting to accumulate on the ships. But the sudden loss of the _Zeus' Spear_ meant that the amount of outgoing fire that his battle group could send out had been significantly reduced.

"Still no luck on the Terminators gaining lock-on?" Rueben asked, hoping that the targeting sensors had managed to burn through the heavy jamming.

"Negative sir! We nearly had burned through the enemy jamming, but with the loss of the _Zeus' Spear_ , we're back to square one. Which means a hell of a time acquiring lock on with our main battery, secondary battery, and missile batteries." A weapons officer replied shaking his head.

"Dammit and that's with the fire-control computers networked?" Rueben replied.

"Affirmative!" came the not-so-welcome reply.

The _Autumn_ shook violently, a violent rumble trembling through the hull. "Armor breach, we're holed! Portside, deck eleven, section seven! Heavy Railgun Two offline, commodore!" Ops yelled.

"Dispatch damage control parties and medical teams and get those bulkheads down this damn instant! Re-angle us against those damn battle cruisers right this instant!" Rueben thundered as the _Autumn_ quivered again under more impacts, she could take this sort of beating effectively forever, but maintaining combat effectiveness while taking a pounding like this was another matter entirely.

Twin lances of fire erupted from the bow of the _White Plains_ , bisecting a pair of light destroyer analogues some five hundred thousand kilometers away. Moments later the _Autumn_ shook as her maneuvering thrusters fired, angling the ship against the incoming fire from enemy battle cruisers.

Her remaining secondary turrets lashed out, bolts of fire burned through the void and caught a corvette analogue right in the nose. Explosions from atmosphere igniting followed by secondaries ripped through the ship before the fusion reactors gave in and the vessel turned into a star.

"Target Alpha-Nine destroyed!" Weapons shouted.

"Commodore, communique from the 2nd Fleet!" Comms shouted.

"What does it say?!" Rueben demanded.

"It says 'Hold tight Battle Group Autumn, we're two minutes out!'." The comms officer replied.

Despite the severity of the situation, Rueben allowed himself to grin. Second Fleet had arrived, the aliens had slammed the hell out of Battle Group Autumn, destroying two of it's frigates and two of it's destroyers plus shooting the hell out of the other ships. They had held the line despite incredibly steep odds, now they had several hundred reinforcements. Which meant that while they would still be outnumbered they sure as hell weren't outgunned.

"Signal the fleet, all remaining active batteries are to continuing firing until ammunition is depleted." Rueben ordered as the _Autumn_ shuddered as her three remaining heavy mass accelerators fired.

* * *

Onboard the PFS _Archer_ , Sparatus barked rapid commands. "Commence roll to starboard, bring the bow up two one degrees! Main battery match pointers and shoot!" he ordered, activating his magnetic boots as he spoke.

Under his feet the _Archer_ rumbled and pitched up, catching his target, an enemy multirole fighter flat footed by the shocking speed and agility that his ship was displaying. The twin spinal mass accelerators discharged with a deep basso thrum that rattled the deck plates and two slugs red-shifted away from the _Archer_ and caught the triangular shaped craft just about dead center, resulting in the fighter vanishing in a brief ancetic flash as the slugs sliced through the shields and armor as if they didn't even exist.

"Target destroyed!" Weapons announced, as on the holodisplay, the other two fighters that the _Archer_ was dueling with vanished in puffs of flame and shattered debris as the GUARDIAN Laser arrays finally wore through the shields and destroyed them.

The other ships in the _Archer_ 's ad-hoc group finished mopping up the fighters, two managing rapidly relocate through the usage of tiny slipspace drives. "Good work, signal the flotilla, reform on me, cease roll and bring us onto course 015, inclination negative zero one one." Sparatus ordered.

"Yessir!" The helmsman and communications officers replied, the _Archer_ shuddered, the weird sensation that the roll inflicted on those inside a ship stopping.

 _Right, that was exciting. I am actually surprised at just how well those enemy fighters can maneuver, they got very high agility for their size. It's little wonder that the_ Besa _interceptors didn't stand a chance against them._ Sparatus thought as he glanced at the holodisplay, noting that the _ad-hoc_ squadron that the _Archer_ was leading formed up around the destroyer.

"All ships standby for torpedo salvo." Sparatus ordered before looking at the holodisplay and trying to find a target that appeared to be the most vulnerable.

The problem was that the enemy was doing their spirits damned best to maintain formation despite the hellish pounding that they were taking, near as Sparatus could tell it was simply because the battle space was _saturated_ with mass accelerator shells. As he watched, the Super-Dreadnought took a hit that had to hurt. A shell from a friendly super-dreadnought managed to punch through the battered yet thick armor, wipe out a secondary fusion torch and continue out the other side. The human warship shuddered visibly under the hammer blow.

The retaliation was harsh and swiftly delivered, the flanks were engulfed in plumes of fire and hot gases, a large salvo of missiles leaped out of their tubes, hot on their heels came a pair of plasma torpedoes at the ship responsible for the strike.

The targeted warship, the Super Dreadnought _Citadel's Pride_ fired her maneuvering thrusters in an attempt to evade while the two escorting frigates opened fire with their Guardian Lasers the moment the missiles got in range, flashes of red light strobing along the surfaces of the tiny warships as they engaged. Shortly lived balls of fire flashed into life in the vacuum as the lasers began to cut down the missiles. Along the flanks of _Citadel's Pride_ came additional red flashes as the mighty warship added her own Guardian laser arrays to the fight.

Yet it wasn't enough, around a dozen missiles managed to slip through the gauntlet of fire and detonated in blinding flashes, obscuring the massive vessel from both visual and sensors. As the light cleared, the powerful warship burst out of the afterglow of the nuclear explosions, intact but not undamaged. At least three or four decks amidships for a stretch of roughly two hundred galactic standard meters had been laid open on the ship's port side, spilling debris and atmosphere from comprised compartments into the void.

Then came the plasma torpedoes, they flew like spears thrown by the spirits themselves. Unerring in their accuracy and absolutely devastating in terms of killing power. At least one of the torpedoes was streaking towards the gaping wound in the _Citadel's Pride_ , a blow that would be fatal should it land.

Sparatus watched in amazement as the massive Super-Dreadnought maneuvered with a level of speed and agility that he thought was impossible, even with element zero at least not without violating several regulations. It turned rapidly to port and revealed the ship's relatively undamaged starboard side. At the sametime, one of the tiny frigates had it's engines flare and it rocketed forward, managing to catch one of the lethal red comets.

The frigate died in seconds as armor and hull boiled away while the atmosphere violently ignited, molten material began to slough off the ship and form prefect slowly cooling spheres in the vacuum, several escape pods managed to launch before a chain of explosions erupted out of the ship's flanks as the remaining ones went up, with the ship's very skeletal structure showing something gave and the tiny frigate turned into a short lived star, complete with its own system of co-orbiting debris.

The other torpedo hurtled onwards, uncaring of what had happened to it's comrade. The _Citadel's Pride_ had it's kinetic barriers flash into life as the torpedo burned through them before punching into the ship's starboard side, just under the starboard side spinal mass accelerator.

The Super Dreadnought's foredecks burned, armor and hull boiling away as the plasma sliced through it with ease. Spirits only knew how much mass was vanishing as the plasma ate through the ship. Suddenly plumes of escaping atmosphere burst forth around the plasma fires that were ravaging the ship were now deprived of oxygen and slowly sputtered out. Leaving a deep, rapidly cooling gash in the warship that glowed orange and red. The _Citadel's_ _Pride_ wasted no time in swinging it's prow around after the fires went out, _away_ from the human warships, as her CO came over the battlenet.

" _This is_ Citadel's Pride _, we've been mission killed, we're pulling out._ "

That statement made Sparatus blink, that plasma torpedo had apparently managed to destroy or at the very least knockout both of the ship's spinal mass accelerators. Which meant that they had been reduced to just one more Super Dreadnought. This wasn't looking good, only two, one of the remaining Dreadnoughts winked off the plot as the sensors displayed a MAC round bullying it's way past the weakened kinetic barriers before smashing through armor with ease which caused the front end of the ship to shatter with the stern reeling backwards from the force of the impact as if kicked by an enraged god, shedding hundreds if not thousands of tons of debris as it did so.

"Well, shit." someone said on the bridge said at the sight.

Sparatus made a grunting sound in agreement, the fleet had lost almost all of it's dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts during this hellish engagement. Most of the battleships were still operational, thank the spirits. But at least thirty or forty ships had died hammering the humans constantly since they had landed additional troops. But despite losses, there was still seven hundred fifty Turian Warships to go around.

He shook his head and barked out additional orders. "All ships, launch one standard torpedo salvo, target the carrier." Sparatus ordered as he found the ship that he thought was reasonably vulnerable. That said, his squadron's position "above" the enemy fleet, gave him the best idea of how the humans were arranged and thus where to strike.

Then everything changed before the torpedoes could even be launched.

"Contacts! Additional contacts!" A bridge officer screamed in alarm as the proximity alarm wailed.

Sparatus yelled for evasive maneuvers, but the _Archer_ was already maneuvering hard, the heavy g forces that were bleeding through the I-comps forcing him to grab onto the hand rails lest he fall over. The battlenet filled with shocked cries of alarm and surprise as the holodisplay suddenly got a lot more crowded and a cold lump formed in his stomach.

A scant 100,000 galactic standard kilometers away on bearing 270 inclination zero-five-zero, a force of some three hundred fifty-eight warships had just dropped out of FTL, having likely taken a secondary mass relay to enter this system. The shapes of the ships were similar but different to the ones that Sparatus had seen already, they had a sleeker more modern look to them, at least thirty or forty were two-point-three galactic standard kilometers in length, but judging by the shape of their hulls they could only be one thing, human _cruisers_ and to make matters worse there warships that were bigger than those insanely powerful warships. His heart caught in his chest when he spotted what had to be the flagship. A _thirty_ galactic standard kilometer long monster that bristled with antenna that could only be weapons, the power output of that _thing_ was incredible, was easily triple or quadruple what the largest and most powerful Super Dreadnought in all of Citadel Space, the Asari Republics legendary _Destiny Ascension_ put out.

"The enemy is charging weapons!" A sensor tech yelled in fear.

"Helmsman get us the hell out of here!" Sparatus ordered sharply as he realized that the _Archer_ was way too close to the enemy formation and that said enemy formation packed way too much firepower.

"Where to sir?!" The helmsman replied fear evident in his voice.

" _Warning: the enemy is targeting the_ Archer _. Hostile target lock achieved, probability of evading enemy salvo five percent._ " Harmpon intoned in a flat voice as beta particle spikes erupted along a line several hundred kilometers long, the amount of energy that was being put out was absolutely terrifying.

"Anywhere else in this system but here, signal the squadron to do the same and follow us!" Sparatus yelled as on the tactical plot, friendly ships were frantically trying to disengage from the human battle group as they realized that what had to be a full blown human battle fleet had just arrived in system.

"Aye sir, hang on!" The helmsman replied, fear evident in his voice before executing an emergency relocation. Space around the _Archer_ seemed to simultaneously crunch _and_ stretch as the small warship screamed past the light barrier, before violently dropping out of FTL and swinging the bow around, some four-million galactic standard kilometers away from the engagement zone.

A half second later, the _Citadel's Pride_ also dropped out of FTL, having gone from lurking at the edge of the combat area, to running for it's life.

Despite the fact that they were beyond visual range, Sparatus still knew when the human battle fleet fired it's opening salvo. It was hard not to actually, for like a wave that swept across the holodisplay, the IFFs of _four hundred fifty_ warships went dark.

Almost immediately the comms channels were filled with damage reports and distress signals, it was overwhelming hearing so many proud Turian Captains panic in fear. They were supposed to be the Citadel's Shield and Sword, not panicking like a Volus banker in a firefight Spirits-dammit!

" _Massive casualties sustained, engines destroyed!_ "

" _This is the_ Wilver's Fury _, fusion reactors offline, multiple hull breaches!_ "

"Firestorm _here, abandoning ship, may the spirits guide your path!_ "

" _Executing emergency FTL ju-_ "

" _..._ n _re..ting, si...decks….ne...assi…._ "

" _We're crippled and burning, we need immediate assistance!_ "

" _Eject the fue-_ "

" _By the spirits, the_ Solstice of Night _has been split into four pieces!_ "

" _Mayday, mayday, mayday…_ "

"Spirits…" Sparatus whispered in shock as more and more mayday calls as well as requests for orders filled the comms. No one knew what to do, not in the face of such overwhelming firepower.

"What do we do sir?" Someone asked.

"Additional energy spikes coming from the enemy fleet, they are advancing and preparing a second salvo sir!" Another bridge tech supplied.

"The remnants of the fifth strike fleet are engaging the enemy!" A bridge tech announced as the strained sensors on the _Archer_ picked up the signatures of mass accelerators and torpedoes firing.

 _Idiotic fools, we can't fight this._ Sparatus thought as he watched the holodisplay as it showed the 5th Strike Fleet's last stand.

They were defiant in the face of death, facing the certainty of it with no fear for they knew no fear.

* * *

Meanwhile onboard the _Autumn_ , everyone on the bride was gaping at the devastation that the Second Fleet's opening salvo had just unleashed.

" _Well, hello second fleet._ " Velvet said in awe as she viewed the carnage that the newly arrived fleet was unleashing through the _Autumn_ 's surviving sensors.

The remaining alien ships that could still maneuver and fight, were swinging around, their weapons hot. They spat shell and torpedo into the void, the shells splattered pitifully against fresh shields too absolutely no effect while the torpedoes were mercilessly cut to pieces by lethally accurate point-defense fire of an entire fleet.

Realizing the futility of their attempts to fight this onslaught, the enemy fleet started to scatter, not that it mattered. The flagship of the second fleet, the _Cole_ class Dreadnought UNSCN _Danforth Whitcomb_ alone packed enough firepower to end all resistance in orbit.

To say nothing of the rest of the warships in second fleet, it was more than sufficient.

The fleet's laser arrays and energy projectors fired first, strobes of green light flashed along the flanks of the UNSC warships, the invisible energy beams reaching out, this was followed by the blinding salvo of energy projector beams, over a hundred of the beams streaked across the void illuminating space with their passage. The MAC guns, secondary batteries, missile batteries, and torpedoes didn't fire because they didn't need too.

The one thing that stood out in the salvo was the crackling electric blue beams unleashed by the _Danforth Whitcomb_ , they weren't energy projectors but the discharge of the new hardlight accelerators that were beginning to replace the energy projectors.

The remaining enemy ships that were still maneuvering and fighting simply dissolved as their hulls were bathed in energies that had the temperature of a star. Nothing of those ships survived, not even fragmented pieces. They had been completely and utterly vaporized, the atomized remains scattered to the eternal night.

* * *

Sparatus stared at the screens and at what had occurred. He had known it was going to occur, but hadn't expected the remains of the Fifth Strike Fleet to be swatted out of existence like flies.

The light from the second salvo from the enemy fleet swept over them like a flood. A blinding flash of light that lasted for maybe a few seconds. The Holodisplay told the story as the ships that could began to have their icons wink out as they self-destructed, with others that could despite being heavily damaged began to run for the relay.

Tiny stars blossomed in the far distance as the death flashes reached them, each one signaled the demise of a warship.

"What do we do sir?" A bridge tech asked.

"How's the heat buildup?" Sparatus asked.

"With our levels? Going through the mass relay is out of the question, we got to vent soon otherwise the crew will start suffering adverse effects also our Guardian laser arrays are at seven percent effectiveness due to heat buildup." A bridge tech replied.

"Vent heat, have all ships vent heat." Sparatus whispered, he knew what that doing so would make the _Archer_ and her ad-hoc squadron shine brilliantly on thermals. But he didn't care, how could they hope to fight this?

"Aye sir, venting heat." A bridge tech replied and the _Archer_ shuddered as her radiators were revealed to space and the built up heat rushed out of them as they were exposed to the near absolute zero of space.

"What do we sir?" Another tech asked.

"Status on surviving friendly ships?" Sparatus inquired.

"Those that can run are fleeing for the Mass Relay as fast as their engines can carry them, while those that can't maneuver are self-destructing, however it appears that several ships can't self-destruct are likely going to fight off boarders. Energy spike, _Citadel's Pride_ is jumping likely heading for the Mass Relay." A bridge tech supplied as the _Citadel's Pride_ vanished in a red-shifting flash of light.

"Status on weapons, fuel, maneuvering capability, and hull integrity?" Sparatus asked.

"Secondary battery magazines expended, we got enough shells left for another hour of combat for the main battery, enough torpedoes for three more full salvoes, GUARDIAN Laser arrays are still at seven percent of rated effectiveness but that number is slowly starting to tick upwards." The chief tactical officer replied.

"Fuel levels are at twenty-five percent, forward propulsion is at ninety percent effectiveness, while maneuvering capability is at seventy percent effectiveness." The helmsman replied.

"Repairs are holding, somehow we weren't hit during the battle with the QRF and we got out of their fast enough so that we didn't get atomized by the enemy fleet." The damage control chief replied.

 _So, we're on poor footing. Everyone is either dead, dying, or running and the_ Archer _is almost completely out of ammunition and low on fuel, at least the hull is still in good shape. But it's unlikely that we will be able to fight this._ Sparatus mused.

"What do we sir?" A bridge tech asked.

"Get us to the M-" Sparatus began before the words he had dreaded to hear rang out across the bridge. The tech saying the words giving them out in the tone that was one of a man announcing that they would be dead if they didn't do something.

"Slipspace rupture, range sixty thousand galactic standard kilometers, bearing zero-three-zero, inclination positive zero-one-three degrees!" A bridge tech shouted, her tone fearful.

Swirling portals erupted into existence as reality tore itself apart, clawing free of the portals like a newborn _Quvrein_ bird bursting from its egg came the sleek forms of five human cruisers, each some two thousand three hundred twenty two galactic standard meters long. The secondary battery turrets were already swinging towards them, their gun barrels orientating themselves to point directly at the _Archer_.

Those human warships contained enough firepower to wipe the _Archer_ and the _ad-hoc_ squadron that she led from existence with ease.

On the holodisplay, it showed similar things occurring, the few surviving Turian warships that were fleeing for the Mass Relay were being intercepted by human cruiser divisions. They appeared to be composed of just five ships apiece, but considering the firepower that just a single one of these monsters had, each one represented a massive amount of firepower.

"Sir, we're being ordered to power down our engines and prepare to be boarded." A bridge tech announced.

 _Might as well, I have over a hundred people under my command._ Sparatus thought as he barked out his next orders. "Signal the squadron all ships are to purge our navigational databases and VI, shutdown the engines and release our helm."

"We're surrendering sir?" A bridge tech asked aghast.

"We are, trust me I hate it just as much as you do. But if it keeps those under my command alive, then so be it. But they won't get much out of us, because I want our navigational databases and VI purged." Sparatus ordered.

The atmosphere turned grim as those under his command executed his orders. He hated surrendering, it went against everything he had been taught. But keeping soldiers who had experience fighting the humans alive.

The dull synthesised thrum of the engines died away as the antiproton drives went silent, leaving just the quiet thrumming of the reactors.

"Heat spikes, human warships are entering the atmosphere." A Bridge Tech announced.

"Classification?" Sparatus asked.

"Judging by the plume size, Cruiser-tonnage at least."

 _Spirits help the ground pounders, because I know for a fact that the humans won't be very forgiving._ Sparatus thought as he executed barely remembered measures that the Navy drew up in case they had to surrender.

* * *

 **0915 Hours, February 11th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **City of Badate, Planet Shanxi**

The Armax Arsenal Slingfire DMR bucked in Corporal Velana Quinrian's hands, the shot flew out of the barrel and impacted her target as he was trying to get behind cover two and half galactic standard kilometers down range.

The 7mm conically shaped penetrator sliced through nearly downed kinetic barriers as if they didn't even exist and then punched through the helmet, creating a neat entry hole and causing roughly two-thirds of the man's skull to blow apart as the round exited. Blood, bone, and brain matter traveling in the wake of the round, splattering everything within a galactic standard meter and a half.

Retaliatory plasma fire ripped through the air, a hearty crackle rending it as the energy bolts landed a little too close. Cursing, Quinrian rolled out of sight from the shattered window she was at and not a moment too soon, for several energy bolts, highly diffused and weakened from their long flight, slashed where she had been just a moment ago. Splashing against the opposite wall and causing it to gain a dull red glow.

A new sound then rattled her senses, a series of loud _**cracks**_ that blended together. The rattle of a kinetic weapon then made its presence known. On the opposite wall, holes materialized as bullets of the chemical variety sliced through the air.

Ducking so she was out of sight, the designated marksman exited the bedroom she was in and went into the master bedroom. Going to the window, she saw that the human squad support gunner was blazing away, trying to lock down her position, likely so that they could put a rocket through the window.

 _Nice try, but I've already relocated._ The corporal thought to herself as she glided her sights onto her target. Pulling the trigger cleanly, the rifle bucked and her target's kinetic barriers flashed into existence as the reduced the mass of the round to the point that it harmless. But that didn't stop her, she pumped two more rounds into the alien and was rewarded with a wild spray of blood as a round passed through weakened kinetic and sliced through armor before tearing the back of her target's neck out.

The human dropped like a puppet with its strings cut.

Before she could line up another shot however, there was a thundering _boom_ as a Hellion discharged its main gun and a high-explosive shell detonated above the enemy position. The shockwave and shrapnel tore the soldiers hiding behind the barricade apart.

 _ **BWOOOOM**_

The sound split the air and made the building tremble. "What in the name of the spirits was _that_ noise?" she muttered to herself as she began to scan for additional targets.

In the far distance, a towering thunderhead was building and something appeared to be disturbing the clouds. Curiosity getting the better of her, she turned her scope on the building storm and went to maximum magnification.

And her eyes beheld a terrifying sight. Part of the towering thunderhead domed outwards before rupturing, clouds and droplets of water sliding away from an immense form. The simple blunt bow lead a sleek hull, it's white and blue hull glittering in the sun as it prowled forward. She realized with a start that it was a warship, a _big_ warship. It's hull was studded with multiple gun turrets of varying sizes and what vaguely looked like GUARDIAN Laser arrays.

The one thing about it though, was its size, she guessed it to be one-point-one galactic standard kilometers long. That meant that the size of the thing was impossible, nothing that big could operate in atmosphere without being crushed by its own weight! Nothing!

Yet as the deep thrumming hums of the ship's immensely powerful anti-gravity drives washed over her. She realized that what may have been impossible for the Turian Hierarchy _wasn't_ impossible for the humans.

She pulled back the magnification on her scope and watched as the massive warship steadily approached, uncaring of the battle going on below it. Quinrian dropped her rifle when she saw two more disturbances like the first and realized that there wasn't one of the massive reality defying warships but that there was _three_ of the things.

Something told her that maybe the warships had extremely thin armor so that they could operate in atmosphere. As she thought that, the few remaining Hierarchy AA guns opened fire on the lead ship.

She watched as the tracers lanced upwards, howling through the air. Lances of red light from the few ground based GUARDIAN AA mounts that remained opened fire on the Cruisers. With a hellacious roar, the Hellion below her fired it's main gun, sending a blue-white streak lancing upwards towards the massive warships

To her horror, she watched as the beams were merely absorbed by a glittering blue-gold hexagonal _energy shield_ that flared into existence when the beams impacted. The AA guns stitched dots across the energy shields as they hammered steel into the leading cruiser. The shot from the Hellion caused a slightly bigger flare as the round shattered against unyielding energy shields.

Blue light began to glow on four points that could she could see on the warship. It built for maybe a half second before weapon mounts unleashed electric blue thunderbolts. From the other warships, came similar lances of destruction.

What ensued next could, at best described as devastation, Quinrian ears rang as at least a dozen detonations occurred far too close together for them to be recognized as individual blasts by her ears. The concussive shockwave threw her into the far as the building shook as if struck by an earthquake, causing stars to detonate across her vision.

A dazzling green flash erupted that seared her retinas as with a roar something nearby exploded. Unseen by her severely damaged eyes, more electric blue lightmass rounds were being fired, but the detonations came close enough together for her to know what they had been. The building shook much more violently this time, the roar of a wall giving way told her that she needed to leave now!

Quirian scrambled to her feet and grabbed her rifle before bolting for the exit of the house. She looked back towards friendly lines and caught a blurry glimpse of a shower of electric blue bolts raining from the sky. A permanent structure that was housing the better part of a platoon came apart before her eyes under the bombardment, concrete and steel shattering as if it was glass. A much larger blurry electric blue thunderbolt struck the building and detonated, what little remained of the structure simply dissolved.

The explosion was deafening, the shockwave lifted her off her feet and sent her tumbling, the sounds of composites and concrete shattering and crumbling ringing in her ears as she slammed into something hot. Scrambling upwards, she saw that it was the burning ruins of a Talon Super-Heavy Tank, it's hull had been perforated at least one hundred maybe as many as two hundred times by something, molten holes riddled it's form. Flames billowed out of the wrecked with a pall of thick black smoke rising upwards.

She began to run back towards the rear when something caught her between the shoulder blades and sent her tumbling forwards, white hot agonizing pain lancing across her back and right while the warble of the alarm for downed kinetic barriers howled in her ears.

She got up and spun, leveling her Slingfire, at around thirteen hundred meters distance according to the scope was a target. She pulled the trigger once, twice, three, four times and was rewarded with the blurry figure dropping to the ground.

A burst of highly diffused plasma caught her in the chest, the layers of super hard ceramics and composites designed to protect her from mass accelerator fire ablated away like wax in an oven. She fell flat on her butt from kinetic force, the barely recharged kinetic barriers having been knocked flat.

Realizing that she couldn't stay where she was, Quinrian scrambled up to her feet and bolted, the faint barely audible crackle of additional diffused plasma bursts flying past her gave her additional incentive to put the dead Talon between herself and the enemy.

She sprinted up two and half blocks before heading into an alley. She took seven steps into the alley when suddenly, something at the back of her mind told her to check her right. Turning in that direction, she barely had a chance to yell in surprise as a burst of crackling electric blue bolts lanced towards her from a sleek gunmetal and silver weapon held in the hands of giant.

A flash of searing heat and agony bloomed in her chest and then darkness surrounded her in it's tight embrace as the pain went away.

* * *

 **Serpent Nebula, near the Yellow Giant star Widow**

Thick swirling clouds of gases, dust, cosmic debris, and what was assumed to be the leftovers from the molecular nanotechnology formed the thick nebula. The thick clouds were a purplish-blue in color, with its entire form spanning some seventy by fifty light years. Like most nebula this one didn't serve any particular purpose in the great scheme of things in the galaxy at first glance. However, there was something _special_ about this nebula, for even though it didn't look like it, but this nebula was the heart of galactic civilization in numerous ways. Politics, trading, culture, employment, and adventure. The reason that this nebula was the beating heart of galactic civilization was because of what lay some twenty light years within it.

Decelerating from superluminal transit via a Mass Relay came a sleek ship, jet black with bands of grey to make it difficult to spot visually when it's stealth features weren't engaged. The light from the antiproton drives were baffled and barely noticeable, while the ship's heat signature was heavily reduced. It's simple blade like hull maneuvered through the void with excellent agility, gracefully maneuvering past the most dangerous clouds of cosmic debris.

Then like a ghost, the ship's destination materialized within visual range.

A large ring, some forty galactic standard kilometers in diameter, twelve galactic standard kilometers wide, and eight galactic standard kilometers thick formed the central base of the massive structure as it supported five massive arms. Each one extended upwards like the pedals of a flower, being without counting the huge skyscrapers that dotted the interior surface some two hundred galactic standard kilometers long, fourteen galactic standard kilometers thick, and eight galactic standard kilometers wide. The exterior plating of the these arms was dark grey, with interesting luminescent green, blue, and red lines forming criss crossing lines that vaguely resemble ancient computer chips giving the massive construct an strange beauty to it.

The ship, spotting it's destination sent for permission to dock, given it's affiliation. That permission was granted immediately. The engines flared slightly and the ship maneuvered downwards into the embrace of the station's arms.

While the interior of the arms themselves were decorated with a mat of glittering yellow lights, some were moving while others were stationary, five massive cities on a massive space station. Each one of the arms had a massive city built on its surface, glittering towers of composites, ceramics, and glass rose several thousand meters into the sky, while specially placed beacons kept the lines of traffic within their assigned lanes, thousands nay hundreds of thousands of vehicles ranging from tiny sport air cars to massive industrial haulers that could be considered small freighters plied these routes every minute of every hour of every day. Artificial gravity was provided via rotation while the atmosphere was kept in place on the arms through powerful mass effect fields that constrained it to roughly a hundred galactic standard meters in height above the interior surface of the arms. The central ring was dotted with numerous docking ports, slipways, and space docks, with some being capable of servicing even the largest bulk superfreighters.

Gliding in on final, the black ship prowled forth, cutting it's main engines and switching to maneuvering thrusters only. Bursts of antiprotons were thrown out to carefully orient the ship as it lined up it's slipway which had been hidden by a blast door.

The arms had the capability to close up while the bottom of the ring had a door some two galactic standard kilometers thick and were protected by multiple layers of extraordinarily powerful shielding which supplemented the four galactic standard kilometers of armor that the exterior had, while defensive lasers and kinetic turrets as well as offensive mass accelerator arrays and other weapons were hidden behind doors and could be deployed on command. Further protection was provided by the ten thousand strong volunteer security force that policed the cities that each massive arm had and the massive ring that formed the central base to the structure. Additional exterior defenses was provided by the massive defense fleet that was composed of ships that were of numerous designs from elegant purple warships that were menacing in their size, to sleek warships that had a slightly organic look to them with razor sharp edges and graceful curves, to predatory warships that had broad wings and simplistic hulls.

The ship once in the slip had magclamps lock onto it's hull, securing it in place. Behind the vessel, a thick blast door descended silently. Sealing into place and locking, then with a hiss, atmosphere was pumped into the dock. With that task completed, a hatchway near the ship's sharp bow opened and a small shore party composed of bipedal amphibian beings left the ship. Clad in silver, white, and dark grey armor, with lethal looking pistols painted in white on their thighs and carrying briefcases, they moved to the doors that exited the dock and disappeared from view.

Well over a hundred frigates, destroyers, and cruisers were backed up by dozens of battleships, dreadnoughts, and super-dreadnoughts; a total of some five hundred warships provided protection for not only the immense station and it's tens of millions of inhabitants as well as the near constant stream of freighters, exploration ships, and starliners, but also the heart of galactic government. It rose from the ring, from an area in the center of it's structure called the Presidium, a magnificent spire of ceramics, composites, and glass; reaching upwards to roughly a third of the way into the ring, with the distinctive three lines of color that lined the exterior of the station had their origin here, spiraling up the tower's length as if they were lengths of twisting decorative ribbon. The structure contained offices, living quarters, security checkpoints, and finally in the penthouse was the heart of galactic civilization.

The name of this station was simply the Citadel.

* * *

 **AN: Yes, the Citadel looks a little different and is much bigger than in canon. But considering what is around for objects in space for Halo, I had to tweak a few things to give the Citadel something of a wow factor compared to say a Halo Ring. Now it isn't as massive as a Halo Ring by any stretch of the imagination, but I took liberties with the station, particularly when you find out something interesting about this place.**

 **As for the ship that was docking, yes that was a Salarian Special Task Groups ship. The specifics of why this ship was docking at the Citadel will be revealed next chapter.**


	12. Blessed are the Peacekeepers

**AN: Alright, I am going to admit that for this chapter, it's the first time writing politics. So if this chapter isn't up snuff compared to my usual stuff, I apologize in advance.**

 **Also, for reference, whenever the Council refer to a Covenant Heavy Cruiser, they are** _ **not**_ **talking about the** _ **ORS**_ **class Heavy Cruiser, but the** _ **RPV**_ **class Light Destroyer, which in my headcanon is seven-hundred fifty meters long.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Guest1: Sadly, there will be no total war between Humanity and the Citadel, but relations won't be as tight as they are in Mass Effect. The reason that their will be no war is mostly for economic reasons. The first is that the economy is still somewhat recovering from the Human-Covenant War and the second is because well, it will be explained in this chapter.**

 **Carlosxvx: Well, to put it in perspective, Battle Group Autumn is a Heavy Cruiser Strike Group. But 350-ships is actually about normal for a standard UNSC Battle Fleet, of which there are about twenty. Some of the defense fleets are even bigger, with notably large defense fleets being Skopje, New Carthage, and of course Epsilon Eridani. The largest fleet in the entire UNSC is the Home Fleet which defends Sol.**

 **Keith: That's a fairly accurate description. Biggest difference between the Human Systems Alliance of Mass Effect and the UNSC/UEG of Halo is that in the Halo universe by this point in time, humanity is just over three months away from the 350th anniversary of the invention of the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, better known as the Slipspace Drive.**

 **Guest2: Have you not read the Codex Entry I put in on the Rachni Wars? It clears up a lot.**

 **OORAH: Your welcome, for permission on using the Talon, if you want you can also use the main Turian Main Battle Tank that I came up with, the Hellion which is a hover MBT using a 115mm Mass Accelerator Cannon.**

 **Chloe: Thank you, we will be seeing the Citadel Council's reaction in this chapter. But I am hoping that everything goes well, that said the Council does not know that the Covenant Empire fragmented.**

 **So let's get this show rolling.**

* * *

 **The Serpent Nebula, Widow System, The Citadel**

Well cared for combat boots from five amphibian looking aliens, Salarians, clicked upon an incredibly well polished floor in near perfect synchronicity. There armor and markings identified them as members of the Salarian Special Task Groups, an elite intelligence gathering organization that specialized in nearly everything related to intelligence operations, including black ops.

They moved with prideful purpose through the halls of the Special Task Groups dock on the Citadel, on this level there was little non-STG traffic, really just the odd Keeper that was scuttling onwards to do something or was doing something were the only non-Salarians on deck.

But for Captain Ivis Yashax Ammery Hammeekwop Row Lagant Zopon, he was trying to prevent all out war from breaking out between the Turian Hierarchy and newly discovered species that had warships that quite frankly boggled the mind in terms of size and power. What's worse, they had maybe a day maybe two, before the Turians would counter attack with quite frankly one of the largest and most powerful fleets that had ever been assembled.

Intervention was thus required to prevent a conflict that would make the Krogan Rebellions look tame. Mainly because early projections based on intercepted sensor logs from the Turian Hierarchy Super Dreadnought _Citadel's Pride_ indicated that the Hierarchy would have roughly a sixty percent chance of winning the war, but the damage to Hierarchy forces would be catastrophic.

He walked up to the first security checkpoint and reported in. "Captain Lagant Zopon reporting, I have critical information regarding the peace and prosperity of Citadel space." he said.

The guard looked up and nodded. "Understood Captain, the report you sent prior to your arrival indicated as such. As requested your getting a closed door meeting with the Council regarding this developing situation." he said.

Lagant nodded in response. "Thank you, we must act quickly on this matter."

"Before you proceed, you must hand over any and all weapons on your person. Once inside Citadel Tower, any and all weapon functions on your Omni-Tool will lock down." The guard said, gesturing to a bin that was opening.

Lagant first unholstered his pistol and said aloud as he removed the ammo block and mod. "Pistol, Heavy, Miasma, Phasic Rounds." before placing the weapon, ammo block, and mod into the proper bins.

Next came his Venom Shotgun, like the Miasma it couldn't fold up. But he repeated the same process that he did with the pistol, stating the weapon type, the model, and the ammunition mod.

The process repeated itself three more times, for his Virus Assault Rifle, Bane Sniper Rifle, and Toxin Holdout Pistol. The weapons were then followed by no less than three grenades and two combat knives.

His other four companions also disarmed themselves.

"That it?" The Desk Guard asked, already used to having STG agents extensively disarm themselves before entering the Presidium.

Lagant nodded "It is." he said.

"You clear to go." he said and with a buzz the gate opened.

Captain Lagant and his team then entered the high-speed elevator that would take them directly to a chamber that was below the penthouse of Citadel Tower. A chamber that was used for situations such as this when the STG needed to brief the Council on threats, foreign or domestic that would threaten the stability of Citadel Space.

With a pleasant ding, the elevator opened and revealed the chamber. It was forty galactic standard meters (gsm) long and roughly twenty gsm wide. There were pictures of notable past councilors adorning the walls, along with fine Thessia tile floors. In the center of the room was a T-shaped table, made of fine Sur'Kesh hardwood.

Waiting for them was the three Councilors, in the center was Councilor Tevos, on her right was the Salarian Councilor: Emaw Ujia while on her left was the Turian Councilor: Holus Gorgius.

The first thing that Lagant noticed was that Holus was looking rather saddened and a little sick.

 _He must have gotten the news of what has happened._ Lagant thought bitterly, if he remembered right the current casualty estimates was at over twenty thousand dead and tens of thousands maybe hundreds of thousands of injured. That was just in space alone and not even counting the possible annihilation of all Legion on the planet.

Councilor Ujia appeared to be a little in the dark about what had happened, but it was clear that she was curious. While Tevos for her part, well Lagant always had a hard time reading her.

"Let's bring this meeting to order, Captain Lagant Zopon you said in your report that the STG had found evidence of major foreign threat to the peace and prosperity of the Citadel?" Tevos said.

Lagant nodded. "Yes honored Councilor, I have. But this is situation is delicate and can still be resolved peacefully, however that will only occur if we act now." he said.

"Alright, let's hear it." Ujia said, if Lagant remembered correctly she was former STG.

"Five days ago, the Turian Hierarchy's fifteenth patrol fleet found a previously undiscovered species activating Mass Relay 314. Acting upon normal standard orders to disable and board the ships activating the relay so that the crews can be questioned. The fleet engaged, however one of the ships wasn't a science ship or an explorer, but a warship, light cruiser-tonnage, but there was barely any element zero readings in the ship. During the exchange of fire, the unknown warship managed to outright destroy five ships, mission-killed two others, crew-killed a third when it self-destructed using nuclear warheads, the only ships that weren't completely destroyed or crippled was a pair of frigates, a destroyer, and the battleship." Lagant began.

Tevos' eyes widened and she shot a glare at Councilor Gorgius. "Holus," she began. "Have your people started a _war_ with an unknown species?!" she said in surprise and a little outrage.

"I am still trying to piece together what the hell happened beyond Relay 314 myself! But I've ordered a full stop on any and all military planning or operations beyond that relay!" Holus shot back.

"Very little element zero, hmm, that would indicate that they found Prothean ruins but only found enough element zero to upgrade their weapons, strange choice. What were the primary weapons used?" Ujia asked.

"Mostly kinetics, though during this initial skirmish, they fired over two hundred torpedoes that accelerated faster than our torpedoes." Lagant replied.

Tevos, Holus, and Ujia glanced at each other, before turning their attention back to the STG Captain. "Proceed with your report Captain." Tevos said, tipping her head slightly.

"The 6th Expeditionary Fleet was despatched immediately in order to pacify the area beyond the activated relay, it was found that Relay 314 was a primary relay but it took them to a cluster with several systems in easy reach, however it deposited them in an inhabited system. It had four light cruisers, two medium cruisers, and one heavy cruiser sized warship. The warships all had varying amounts of element zero, but most alarming fact is that two of the light cruisers and the heavy cruiser had plasma particle projectors and all four light cruisers as well as the heavy cruiser had energy shields, although the medium cruisers only had kinetic barriers. But all of the ships also had tough armor, capable of absorbing shots from spinal mass accelerators, which combined with the heavy point defense the warships as well as their heavy missile armament, the 6th Expeditionary Fleet suffered heavily at the hands of the enemy, taking eighty-one percent casualties." Lagant said, but before he could continue, there was a sharp intake of breath from Tevos.

"Seven ships fought some two hundred twenty Turian warships and managed to inflict those kinds of losses?" Tevos asked shocked.

"We can figure from the reports that the reason the fleet suffered so badly was because of poorly designed tactics, non-layered point defense, the enemy's spinal mass accelerators firing slugs heavier then the rounds fired by _Destiny Ascension_ , layered enemy point defenses, willingness to use those point-defense guns in melee, bomb-pumped X-Ray lasers, nuclear shaped charges, and large quantities of torpedoes." Lagant answered as he tapped something on his omni tool.

The holoprojector in the center of the table warmed to life. "These are sensor logs came from the PFS _Archer_ and then show just how many torpedoes we are talking about when this unknown species, identified through captured survivors as humans or humanity. Serving under an organization called the United Nations Space Command Defense Forces, that's really all Turian interrogators have managed to pry out of prisoners besides name, rank, and what we can assume is a serial number. The questioning of civilians left behind in an apparent evacuation of the human world yielded enough to get a translation program working." Lagant added as a vaguely arrowhead shaped ship appeared on scanners in the middle of a maelstrom of flying mass accelerator shells, electric blue thunderbolts, and missiles. The flanks of the warship were suddenly in fire and hot gases then a cloud of tiny of flares lanced forth, quickly lancing out of sight.

"Spirits, the reports said that the humans loved throwing around torpedoes, but that puts it in perspective." Holus breathed out, "GUARDIAN lasers would struggle to knock down that many torpedoes."

"I don't see how this could be a threat to galactic security. Far as I can tell, this new race, humanity right?" Tevos began and upon getting a nod from Lagant at her question continued. "Are just defending one of their colonies, though given how some ships have element zero and others don't indicates that they recently discovered Mass Effect."

Lagant nodded. "That's the conclusion that we've reached as well. But that isn't the biggest reason why we fear an all out war between the Turians and humanity will _shatter_ the Hierarchy navy. It's this." he said and tapped in a few more commands.

The scene being displayed on the Holoprojector changed, the perspective was different and the design for the human ships were similar but a lot bigger, but two of the warships were designs that hadn't been seen before, with the smaller of the two previously unseen warships being vaguely reminiscent of Salarian warships with it's sleek design. The other design however was much larger and it's design was simplistic, a massive brick-shaped construction with several large gun turrets, what appeared to be dozens...no... _hundreds_ of torpedo tubes dotting its flanks, and antenna that were either strobing green light or spitting blue-tinted shells into the void. Dozens if not hundreds of brief anetic flashes from mass accelerator slugs were bursting into existence as the rounds hammered it.

"This footage is from the only capital ship to survive the annihilation of the 5th Strike Fleet which went through Relay 314 after the 6th Expeditionary Fleet was annihilated by this force. However, this force isn't cause for alarm, as despite it's firepower was on the verge of being overwhelmed by the Strike Fleet before human reinforcements arrived." Lagant said as something that despite having seen the footage himself would never forget when it happened.

Hundreds of blue light pulses flared and rippled within seconds of each other in the far distance and all three Councilors starred in stupefied shock at what they were seeing. Dozens if not hundreds of ships of medium cruiser, dreadnought, and super-dreadnought tonnage and _beyond_ , with a monster in the center of the enemy formation that dominated the screen.

"This lone warship is some _thirty_ galactic standard kilometers in length, the power levels of this one warship is equal to at _least_ three or four warships of the same caliber as _Destiny Ascension_ and the firepower that it can project is absolutely incredible." Lagant said as the monstrous ship became highlighted.

"We must intervene to prevent war, the Citadel Charter says that if a Councilor puts a stop order on any military action by the nation they represent, the Council then has one week to resolve the situation before any planned military action goes forth." Ujia said.

Tevos for her part looked shocked as the recording continued and even though the human fleet could no longer be seen due to the warship having made a tactical FTL jump. The sensor feeds still managed to paint an incredible image.

The human warships had quickly taken on a concave formation. It meant that _all_ of the human warships could get clean shots at the warships of the 5th Strike Fleet. Light and energy was frothing in points in the bows of the warships, then they fired. A blinding tsunami of light and energy roaring forth from the "UNSC" ships followed by the distinctive flash of spinal projectile cannons firing followed by a massive swarm of missiles erupting and electric blue thunderbolts lancing forth. Turian ships either flew apart, vaporized, or shattered under the hellish onslaught by the hundreds.

"Evidently, this first battle group was sent in response to the battle group that was obviously scrambled in response to the 6th Expeditionary Fleet's invasion of the planet when it was in danger of being overrun by the Turian 5th Strike Fleet this fleet was scrambled in response. Every action taken thus far has been defensive and not offensive, but we must act soon before they launch their counter attack." Ugil said brisky.

"A counter attack that could rampage through dozens of systems before we can stop it! Considering how much damage that these _bastards_ have done to the Hierarchy Navy, they are going to be going on the warpath, imagine the death toll if they hit the Citadel for example!" Holus snarled.

"Such a thing would only occur if we allow this war to even continue. It started because of poorly thought out regulations, this species was breaking a law that they didn't _know even existed_." Tevos said sharply, heat seeping into her voice.

"Tell that to the thousands of families who are getting notified that they had loved ones killed in action." Holus shot back.

"Councilor Holus, according to STG calculations, you would need at least all six remaining Strike Fleets to have a better than fifty percent chance at taking this fleet down. Yet, the damage sustained to those fleets will break their back, with simulations showing that at least two Strike Fleets would be completely wiped out and the others will be heavily reduced. If the humans have just six more fleets like this one, then there is a chance that during a conflict, the Hierarchy will lose ships faster than they can be built; if they got twelve more fleets like this one, that will happen. The best result would be a draw, at worst the humans march on Palaven unless the other citadel member races intervene and provide military support." Lagant added, his voice firm.

"I am in agreement with the Captain, just from what I've seen with these mere sensor images. It doesn't paint a pretty picture, we can't afford a war with them. Our economy won't be able to take the strain let alone the military losses. The Terminus Systems could see it as a chance to invade." Ugil said looking thoughtful.

Tevos and Ugil then glanced at each other before looking at Holus. After several seconds, Holus' posture shifted uncomfortably as Tevos gave him a firm stare. But remarkably, Holus held his ground on his position. But judging by the slight nods from Tevos and Ugil, they had come to an agreement.

"It's been decided by this Council that military action will only happen if diplomatic talks fail." Tevos said.

"We'll assemble a First Contact Party immediately and do our utmost to prevent a full-blown war from breaking out." Ujia added.

Lagant nodded, he had been hoping for this outcome. Even if Holus hated it the outcome. Mainly because this one income would likely save millions of lives and would prevent an economic crash of astronomical proportions. As it were, he got a weird feeling, that the entrance of humanity was going to change a lot of things, not that they already had, but in ways that couldn't be expected.

"Is there anything else you wish to report, Captain?" Tevos asked, her tone genuinely curious.

"One Turian Hierarchy Gunnery Sergeant actually found evidence, a documentary to be exact, that humanity fought a full-blown war against the _Covenant Empire_ and won. Not a proxy war like the Rachni Wars, full on conflict lasting almost three decades. One such campaign lasted five years and resulted in an entire Garden World getting destroyed. The conflict itself was utterly devastating, because at that time humanity didn't even have mass effect at their disposal." Lagant replied.

The effect on the Council was immediate; Tevos' jaw dropped in shock, Ujia took in a sharp intake of breath, and Holus swore vividly like the former army sergeant he was. The Covenant Empire alongside the Terminus Systems were the one thing that the Citadel Council actively _feared_. Their proxy participation during the Rachni Wars had resulted in the Rachni nearly destroying the Citadel Council, only thanks to the Salarians uplifting the Krogan had the tide turned been turned against them. Even after the defeat of the Rachni, the Citadel Council feared that one day they would come back and finish the job that the Rachni started.

"Are you sure?" Tevos asked, being the first to recover, her voice quivering slightly.

"Positive, some of the designs seen were almost an exact match to ones on record. With one design being a perfect match to the Covenant Heavy Cruisers seen during the Rachni Wars." Lagant replied.

"How were they able to win? Plasma was shown to be extremely effective against kinetic barriers due to the fact that they conform with the ship's hull unless properly designed. Meaning that even though they can block plasma itself, the sheer heat that it has can still do major damage to the hull underneath and plasma particle projectors could overwhelm them through sheer power. While lasers merely ignore kinetic barriers altogether." Ujia asked.

"Near as can we at the STG can figure, it wasn't because they had element zero. If anything they lacked it, but they made up for it by using clever battle tactics and strategies, however developing improved armor plating and weapons also played a role and sheer determination. That said, the conflict itself was bloody and the humans were outclassed by the Covenant early on in the war." Lagant replied.

"How bloody are we talking about?" Holus asked.

"Very bloody, the typical human Light Cruiser, which the humans called the _Halcyon_ class, had a crew of about fourteen thousand sailors. While the typical human Heavy Cruiser, called the _Marathon_ class, had a crew of eight thousand sailors. The typical human battlecruiser, called the _Valiant_ class had a crew of ten thousand. The massive warship that the humans called the _Epoch_ class Fleet Carrier has a crew of twenty thousand. The typical human destroyer during those early years, called the _Halberd_ class, had a crew of two thousand sailors. Finally, the typical combat frigate, called the _Paris_ class by the humans, had a crew of eight hundred fifty." Lagant began, only to be interrupted by a surprised sound from Tevos.

"Yes Councilor?" Lagant asked.

Tevos shook her head. "I am sorry for the interruption Captain, it's just, these numbers boggle the mind. The _Epoch_ class as the humans call it, has double the crew compliment of the _Destiny Ascension_ and the _Valiant_ class has the same compliment as the _Destiny Ascension_. It's just a little hard to take in is all." she replied.

"I see, the crew numbers can be a little hard to picture but what isn't hard to picture is just how badly the humans suffered during the first major battle they fought against the Covenant. They had forty warships, one battlecruiser, six heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, one fleet carrier, sixteen destroyers, and twelve frigates. Array against them, as the documentary puts it was one _OSS_ class dreadnought, two _CCS_ class battlecruisers, and five _RPV_ class light destroyers. Despite outnumbering the Covenant Empire significantly, they still suffered major losses, twenty-eight warships were destroyed, with fifteen of them, including four heavy cruisers and two light cruisers, going down with all hands with the remaining twelve warships all suffering damage to some degree in return for destroying all of the Covenant Warships. In the words of the fleet's commanding officer 'The enemy fleet of nine ships was destroyed and _twenty-eight_ of ours obliterated; it did not _bode_ well.' The fact that they survived and apparently won there war is all the more impressive." Lagant said and then looked at the reactions of the Council.

Tevos paled, her eyes wide and filled with shock not to mention looking more than a little sick at the thought of so many being killed in a single battle. Ujia had this shocked look in her eyes and her posture all but screamed surprise. Holus mandibles were flared outwards in surprise, his eyes wide. The number of sailors killed in action from the cruisers that went down with all hands alone was _sixty thousand_ which meant that factoring the dead from the other ships destroyed with all hands alone could easily top eighty thousand.

"That many dead…." Tevos whispered quietly. "The number of dead and wounded is just enormous from that one battle, it's impossible to fathom."

"Twenty-eight ships, that's over two thirds of the entire force lost. If I remember right, during the Rachni Wars, whenever we engaged a Covenant Heavy Cruiser with our Dreadnoughts and Battlecruisers, we suffered worse, usually five or so ships equaled a single Covenant ship. The fact that they could match them by outnumbering them by three-to-one says something about where they were technologically." Ujia said looking thoughtful, but her tone of voice indicated that she was just as shocked as Tevos was at the number of dead wrought in just one battle.

"Something tells that is what would be considered a victory, Spirits. I don't even _want to know_ what a defeat would be considered." Holus added.

"That's quite simple, the destruction of every single human ship and station in orbit and the extermination of the entire population, followed by the planet's surface burning until it was but glass." Lagant replied. "The conflict, which was known as the Human-Covenant War, was a fight for humanity's very survival."

"Something tells me there is more to this story than meets the eye. From what we've seen, when the Covenant decides to do something, they rarely do it half way." Holus said firmly.

"Agreed, we can investigate the details of this 'Human-Covenant War' later. Our first priority however is that we must stop a full-blown war from breaking out between this new species, humanity, and the Turian Hierarchy." Ujia added.

"This meeting is adjourned." Tevos said and the meeting broke up.

* * *

 _Three Citadel Hours later_

The _Nostalgia for Infinity_ wasn't a large ship, only two hundred galactic standard meters long and one hundred sixty galactic standard meters wide. Despite that, she had the easily recognizable aesthetic of an Asari design. In essence a broad flying wing, the vessel was almost completely unarmed save for a quartet of GUARDIAN laser mounts and Kinetic Barriers.

Regardless she moved with a speed and grace that fitting for most ships of her size and function. Providing close escort for her was a pair of Salarian Destroyers, their sleek forms moved with what appeared to be a slight sluggishness compared to the _Nostalgia for Infinity_ , but that sluggishness, Captain Cera Thaniora knew was a ruse. In reality, they were faster than almost every other frigate class (with the exception of Salarian ones of course) and packed a lot of firepower in the form of long-range ship-to-ship UV laser cannons, torpedoes, and other more advanced and exotic weaponry.

One thing that was slightly disturbing was the fact that the Turians _weren't_ messing around, an official counterforce was in the process of being assembled, but in the meantime five full Patrol Fleets had been assembled to guard Relay 314.

"Status report!" Cera barked as the tiny vessel and it's escort with permission from the Turian patrol fleets slipped through their corden and headed for the relay. "We're at normal operating procedures for first contact, kinetic barrier system primed but not up, GUARDIAN lasers cold, all exterior and navigation lights on, ezero core at normal mass setting, and fusion reactors are at eighty percent of rated power." ops replied.

Cera had been apart of the Citadel Diplomatic Corps for a good five hundred years and had seen just about everything that could happen during a first contact mission, from communications breaking down, to resounding successes, to on one particularly memorable occasion suddenly getting caught in a space battle because the species she was meeting was apparently in the middle of a civil war. She thus had enough experience to know that every single first contact mission was different.

"Take us in." She ordered after nodding response to the status report.

"Relay 314 is in range, initiating transmission sequence." The helmswoman said, the _Nostalgia_ rumbled faithfully as she advanced towards the relay.

The Relay lit up like a Citadel Night Club, ancient runes and lines flashing into brilliant life upon its surface. Within the massive structure, ancient communication arrays powered up in response to the communication arrays on the _Nostalgia_ contacting them.

"We are connected, calculating transit mass and destination." the navigator added, flipping through various screens before finding the right one. Her fingers flew across the haptic display as she crunched the numbers, calculating exactly how long the relay would need to keep the massless corridor open and how much the ship massed.

Additional lights flared into being, the rings that surrounded the ball of the element zero began to spin faster and faster as the relay built up power to create the necessary massless corridor.

A power spike suddenly registered on the sensors of the _Nostalgia_ as she began to accelerate towards the ring. "Relay is hot! Acquiring approach vector!" The helmswoman said as her fingers glided across the haptic interface.

With a barely audible rumble, the thrusters fired and adjusted the ship's course. Lining her up with the entrance vector for this particular relay. Moments later, the intercom chimed. " _All hands, secure Mass Relay transit._ "

"All systems are green on the board, hitting the relay in three, two, one." The navigator said as the Relay sprang to life, great jagged tendrils of energy reached out and embraced the _Nostalgia for Infinity_ and her escort in their grasp. Then space _crunched_ and _stretched_ as with just the slightest jolts of acceleration the ship rocketed pass light barrier, neatly sidestepping the laws of physics in the process.

An instant later, the ship decelerated from her Superluminal trip, nearly nine hundred fifty light years away. The sister relay to 314 hung sedately in the void, a mere twenty thousand galactic standard kilometers. "First contact package away!" the comms officer shouted.

"Sensors, give me a contact report. What's in-system?" Cera ordered.

"Lot of ice and rock in fairly close proximity to the relay, I think they recently uncovered it. That said, there is a _lot_ of debris in system, I got a lot of blind spots. Picking up multiple signatures in orbit of the third planet, they match the known signatures of human warships." the sensor officer reported.

"Send the second package, take us deeper in system but do it slowly. I don't want to spook them." Cera replied.

"Yes ambassador!" the helmswoman replied before tapping in her commands. The _Nostalgia_ thrummed under foot and started accelerating in-system. The Salarian Destroyers providing escort sluggishly followed.

The holodisplay showed what the sensors were seeing, which wasn't a pretty sight the human fleet and the massive debris field that used to the Turian Hierarchy's 6th Expeditionary Fleet and 5th Strike Fleet, composed of pieces as small as a folded holdout pistol to half slagged ships. Also recognizable throughout the debris field were the ruins of several human warships destroyed before the massive battle fleet had arrived. Flitting among the debris were two different types of craft, one was one a small brick with a pair of antiproton thrusters forward and aft. The other one was much larger and more angular, with broad wings, the harsh glare of fusion engines emanated from the wings and the back of it's angular fuselage.

As for the warships themselves, they were utilitarian in shape but pretty in their own way, with their sleek lines and fairly handsome white, blue, and black paint scheme. Light flared and the human ships began to swing towards them, the formation which was tight shifting seamlessly to a formation designed for moving. "Human fleet is moving, their accelerating towards us, estimated time till we're in communications range is two minutes, estimated time to visual is one minute thirty seconds."

"Signal the Salarians, tell them to assume standard first contact formation." Cera ordered.

"Yes sir!" The communications officer reported.

On the sensor board, the two Salarian Destroyers backed off and increased their spacing, allowing the _Nostalgia for Infinity_ to gain distance on her escorts in order to appear less threatening but were still in position to rapidly provide aid should the need arise.

"Thirty seconds to visual contact, one minute to communication range." The sensor officer called out.

The human formation was spreading out. The majority of the "Cruisers" were spreading themselves out evenly, the massive two galactic standard kilometer plus behemoths moving with surprising grace and agility. The escorting "Destroyers" and "Frigates" were taking up a defensive posture, "destroyers" on the outside and "frigates" plying through the void closer to the "cruisers". But there was also much bigger warships in that formation, the massive flagship was taking position at the head of the human formation.

"Receiving something ma'am, it appears to be, by Goddess, human first contact package received!" The comms officer announced.

Despite herself, Cera had a slight grin spread across her face. So, they didn't want a war as much as the Turians thought they did, the fact that they were sending a first contact package indicated as such. If anything, that was a very good sign all things considered.

"Human fleet in visual range and slowing, the flagship is still slowing as well but at a much slower rate." The sensors officer announced.

"First contact package decoded and uploaded into the computer, VI working to optimize and integrate new information in with the current translation program." Ops said.

"Transmit third package, enact first contact protocols. Cut our engines and ballistic velocity, assume precision station keeping." Cera ordered despite knowing that the crew was extremely experienced in the art of doing first contacts, the members of the bridge crew would show a strict silence unless something that demanded attention came up.

The rumble of _Nostalgia for Infinity_ 's engines died away as with a thrum her thrusters fired, cutting her forward motion entirely. On the screens, even though the human ships were in visual range, they looked like mere blocky toys. The large human dreadnought was still approaching, it's engine block still aglow with light as it continued forward, details becoming better resolved by the minute.

It's engines fired and the huge bulk of the massive warship began to slow even more. Cera shook herself as she realized just how _huge_ the thing was. The report had said the thing was thirty galactic standard kilometers in length and was as wide as a Quarian Liveship was long, height wise it appeared to be about as tall as a Turian Super Dreadnought, overall it was rather intimidating even with it's white, blue, and black hull colors. Various antenna jutted from the ship's hull while the bow was adorned with four domes and six large muzzles.

"We're being hailed, two-dimensional audio and visual feeds." The comms officer announced.

"On screen" Cera said.

A few tapped out commands and then the scene shifted from what the sensors were seeing to the video feed.

What was displayed on screen, it took every ounce of Cera's vast amounts of experience to not openly gap as she looked at the human displayed on screen. The similarity between humans and asari was shocking to say the least.

The facial structure was almost a perfect match, the only real differences was that the skin tone was way more pink and that this particular human had fur on top of his head cropped short and a well trimmed set of fur above his mouth line but below his nose. Visible on the collar of his uniform, was four small bronze stars.

If anything though, at least the human on the other side of the link appeared to be as shocked as she felt: eyebrows raised, eyes wide, and jaw slack. So, the fact that humans and asari looked remarkably similar was unexpected but something that could be handled.

Cera cleared her throat before she began speaking in a formal tone. "Greetings from the Asari Republics, we come in peace and hope to prevent any further bloodshed. I am Captain Cera Thaniora, envoy to Councilor Tevos."

 _Here's to hoping everything goes well._ She thought.

" _I am Admiral Yazid Sadi, commanding officer of the United Nations Space Command Navy's 2nd Fleet operating in service to the United Earth Government. As long as nobody opens fire on us, I think we're going to get along just fine._ " The man, at least judging by the tone, said with a slight smile and a noticeable accent.

Despite herself, Cera allowed herself to smile slightly as well.

* * *

 **1845 Hours, February 11th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Epsilon Eridani System, Eridani II**

 **Noble Tower, FLEETCOM HQ, New Alexandria**

Arcturus Station may have been an important fortress world, arguably one of the most important in all of United Earth Government space due to the fact that the Arcturus Prime Relay's "sister" was the Charon Mass Relay which lead directly into Sol System. But for vectors that were approaching Sol through non-Mass Relay vectors, there was an older, more famous fortress world.

Towards the end of the Human-Covenant War, it's surface had burned till it was but glass. It's massive orbital fleet, three hundred strong reduced to but a nearly obliterated shell of its former self that had fled the system as the various stations were boiled into nothingness by unending plasma, particle, and laser barrages. The planet hadn't taken long to fall, just over a month and a half from the first firefight to the last. After the war had ended, extensive terra-forming had taken place, transforming the planet from a hellscape into a lush Garden World once again. Great rivers, mighty seas, vast forests, broad plains, and rugged snow-capped mountains all dotted it's surface.

The planet in question was a young world, less than a billion years old, an infant in galactic terms. Thus it's surface had yet to be noticeably weathered, the glassing that had ravaged it's surface, seventy-two years ago had if anything, made the planet even more rugged than it had been before it's glassing. In orbit of the planet hung some of the largest shipyards outside of Sol System, massive space docks that allowed for the construction, docking, and repairing of the tremendous _Cole_ class Dreadnoughts. Plus there were other space docks as well with different purposes, with such a variety in place that they would be able to handle anything that was in service, either military or civilian.

While slated to defend this system were multiple layers of defense. Outpost stations with some of the most powerful sensors ever devised hung at the outskirts of the system, capable of launching probes into slipspace to look for incoming ships, minefields of both the nuclear and antimatter variety, over the second planet alone was some four hundred warships and one hundred twenty Orbital Defense Platforms, a mixture of Mark II and Mark III _Moncton_ class and _Cairo_ class ODPs. Their task was to defend the planet below at all costs should it come under attack.

This planet had two designations, Eridani II but the other one, the world's proper name was a single phrase that everyone within United Earth Government space knew no matter their age.

Reach.

Glittering cities dotted its landscape, most of them having been rebuilt on the sites of cities and towns that had been on the planet before it's glassing. Many of these locations had new names with major memorials and even museums dedicated to the old ones, but several rebuilt cities had kept their old names. The most notable of which was on the northern shore of the continent of Eposz, a glittering mosaic of skyscrapers and other buildings. Skylanes criss-crossed the sky between the various buildings while people walked along the various walkways or took the few cable cars that were throughout the city, towards the surface was a criss-crossing network of groundlanes.

Near the heart of the sprawling metropolis was a large complex of buildings, separated from the rest of the city's flowing lines. Most were of average height, however the decently tall and thick concrete wall topped with barbed wire, guarded entrances at the the skylane, ground lane, and walkway entrances, as well as the patrols of Marines pointed to the fact that this complex was important. It was in fact vitally so, this was Reach FLEETCOM HQ, the most identifiable feature of the complex was the glittering glass, steel, and composite tower that rose six thousand feet into the sky.

Noble Tower. Named for the Spartan Team that made humanity's survival possible and the sacrifices they had made to ensure that humanity could survive.

On the three hundredth floor, sharply polished black dress shoes clicked on tile as Office of Naval Intelligence affiliated Ambassador Donnel Udina marched towards the meeting. He was also wearing a fine black suit jacket, dress black pants, and a white dress shirt. In his hands was his datapad, he wasn't entirely sure why he had been summoned to this meeting but the wording had indicated that it was urgent.

He reached the conference room where the meeting was being held, one of the two ODSTs held up a hand and he stopped. Just like he had about a dozen times before, he proved his identity through retina scan, fingerprints, a DNA sample, and voice authentication. Once that process was completed, the ODST nodded. "Your free to enter, sir." he said.

With that the door swung open and he entered the conference room, straightening his outfit as he did so. What he found was surprising, there was usual gathering of officers, including at least one member of ONI, also at the meeting via Quantum Entanglement Communications was CINC-Navy as well as the head of Parliament of the United Earth Government.

" _Ambassador Udina, your late._ " The holographic image of CINC-Navy, Fleet Admiral Thomas Lasky said with a minorly disapproving look.

"Sorry Admiral, the traffic was pretty bad." Udina replied truthfully.

Lasky grunted in response. " _Nevermind that, let's get down to business. Less than an hour ago, Admiral Yazid Sadi, CO of the Second Fleet which was despatched by Arcturus Station HIGHCOM to relieve Battlegroup Autumn at Shanxi which was under heavy attack from previously unknown aliens, reported a successful first contact with a second previously unknown species called the Asari who are in an alliance with the first race which are called the Turians. Initial reports are promising but, we've been asked to come before a 'Citadel Council' in order to discuss peace terms._ " he said.

"They want to discuss _peace_ , despite the fact that one of their allies launched an unprovoked attack on us! They destroyed some of our ships and damaged others, killing loyal sailors, marines, and ODSTs plus likely taking those that survived as Prisoners of War without good reason and that they _occupied_ one of our colony worlds?" Admiral Jennifer Hale, commanding officer of the twelve hundred fifty ship strong Epsilon Eridani Defense Fleet asked sharply, her vibrant green eyes held a simmering anger within them.

" _Admiral, with all due respect while I agree with the sentiments, our economy has taken a turn that indicates in at most eighteen months we'll be looking at a major recession. People are panicking because they are fearing that this will be like the Human-Covenant War all over again in terms of scope and scale. The stock market value for several defense contractors, specifically those specializing in the production of civilian-grade warships and orbital defenses dropped sharply. With the biggest loser being Reyes-McLees Shipbuilding company, their stock plunged some twenty percent over the course of two and half days before the Treasury Department managed to put a freeze on selling stock in the defense industry. The recession, economists are saying is likely going to be at least as bad as The Great Recession of 2008, our economy simply will not be able support a war._ " The Head of the Parliament, to be specific the majority Senate Leader said, her tone, rightfully, somewhat alarmed.

"Well, shit." Jennifer said, summing up everyone's thoughts.

" _Exactly, thus we're in a tight bind. I for one, am not in favor of war._ " Lasky said, steepling his fingers.

"So what does this have to do with me Admirals, Generals?" Udina asked, moderately confused.

One of the people in the attendance, the ONI agent, pressed a button on her holographic console and from the Senate Majority Leader's connection came a chime. She looked down and grimaced. " _I have to go, something has come up._ " she said before cutting the connection. A moment later the agent leaned forward and Udina realized with a start that who he thought had been a mere ONI agent was actually _CINC-ONI_ , Admiral Hermina Gaertner.

"Your a career politician Ambassador, you've been the UEG's ambassador to the Yonhet for ten years. Not to mention, your best the politician on the bankroll of S-31." Gartner replied.

Udina shifted uncomfortably, S-31 was an _**extremely**_ classified Section within ONI, the only people who knew about it were in this room, the only reason Admiral Hale even _knew_ about S-31 was because a S-31 ship had a slipspace drive malfunction. When the drive had fired, a full third of the three hundred twenty meter long ship had been obliterated, it had been Hale's ship, the UNSCN _Preston J. Cole_ , nameship in the _Cole_ class of Dreadnoughts that had been the first on the scene to rescue the survivors.

The purpose of S-31 was so classified even he didn't know what the Section's true purpose even _was_. Only that it seemed to have people of just about every profession imaginable in its ranks and almost completely without oversight. Making it something of an oddity within ONI considering how well and viciously they policed their own.

"So what is this about?" Udina asked, slightly confused.

Gartner smiled slightly. "Your going to be in-charge of the negotiation team that we are sending to this Citadel in order to discuss peace terms. Now, we got several terms that must be met, we will want an embassy on this Citadel, not to mention we will want the Turians to pay reparations for damage done to the colony of Shanxi, the handing over of all UNSC servicemen and women taken prisoner, as well as bodies of those who had been killed in orbit." she said.

"I've never been in a first contact situation like this, let alone being in-charge for negotiating terms for the end of a war." Udina replied.

"True, on both counts, however you have experience and drive. You may not know it, but your ready for this assignment." Gartner said.

Udina took in a deep breath, Ambassadors no matter how much experience they had rarely won arguments with admirals, particularly when said admiral was in charge of one the most powerful intelligence organizations that had ever existed. Worse, since he was on ONI's payroll, that meant Admiral Gartner was effectively his boss.

"I understand admiral, what's going to be the bus for this?" Udina asked.

At that Lasky smiled. " _Nothing too substantial, we're sending the UNSCN_ Leviathan _, UNSCN_ Walker, _UNSCN_ Divine Wind, _UNSCN_ Dragon Rage _, and UNSCN_ Boomerang _._ "

Udina thought about it for a moment. "The _Leviathan_? She's barely been in a commission for a week!" he exclaimed.

" _I know that, but she's also a_ Maelstrom _class Heavy Cruiser_ 1 _, the first to be equipped with the new hardlight accelerators rather than energy projectors, the other ships are two_ Daring _class Heavy Destroyers and two_ Amber _class Aerospace Defense Frigates. Nothing too major, but enough to blast it's way out of trouble should a shooting situation develop._ " Lasky said in response.

 _Considering the amount of firepower that just those five warships, if a shooting situation does develop, I pity the bastards who wind up in our way._ Udina thought as he ran numbers considering the level of firepower that the taskforce had in his head. It came out to a quite frankly somewhat alarming amount.

"That's a lot of firepower just to escort a negotiation team, wouldn't just a _Daring_ class Heavy Destroyer escorted by a pair of _Amber_ class Aerospace Defense Frigates be better?" Udina asked.

" _In most circumstances, probably, but we also want to send a statement. Because not only are we going to have discuss terms but it needs to be treated as a proper first contact, which means history needs to be exchanged as well._ " Lasky said and Udina grimaced.

"That includes the Great War doesn't it?" Udina asked.

Lasky's face became clouded, obviously remembering his own experiences from that time, Hastati squad, the Covenant attack on Corbulo Academy of Military Science, and the numerous other battles he had taken part in. " _Yes Ambassador, it does. However, one thing that must be made absolutely clear, we are_ not _downsizing our military. We still got a dozen San'Shyuum Warlords running about, most seem to be minding their own business but at least two are openly hostile to us._ " he said.

Udina nodded, that made sense, there would be no way in hell that they would be downsizing their military, at worst he could accept a stop order on new construction of anything new. The navy wouldn't like it, but it would make the most sense.

"I take it that the Commandant of the ODSTs and CINC-Spartan had an argument over who would get to escort the negotiation team while they are on this Citadel?" Udina asked, already having a suspicion of what the answer was.

Lasky nodded in a sage way. " _Very much so Ambassador, you know as well as I do how much those two can get when something like this comes up. In the end, I felt that we need to keep the existence of the Spartans secret in order to not reveal all of our cards. Thus the escort is being provide by two squads of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers._ "

Udina nodded, that made the most sense. Best to not reveal all of the cards that you held right off the bat. Show some but not _all_ of your capabilities, as it were, the engagement of the Second Fleet had probably given the races of the Citadel something of an idea of what the UNSC was truly capable of.

"When does Task Force Leviathan depart?" Admiral Hale asked.

" _Admiral Sadi told the first contact team to expect a negotiation team at the Citadel within five Terran days, because she didn't have the authority to speak on the behalf of the UNSC and the UEG. Task Force Leviathan is scheduled to depart at oh-eight hundred hours on February thirteenth and is expected to arrive by fifteen forty hours, on the same day after traveling through the Mass Relays. They are going to be arriving at the Citadel in full parade formation, with all exterior and navigation lights on._ " Lasky replied.

The assembled staff nodded, it was a brilliant idea. Mainly because it would show that they weren't intimidated at all, plus it would show just how honest and peaceful their intentions were.

"Guess I better start packing then." Udina said shaking his head.

Lasky nodded. " _Right, then it's settled, this meeting is adjourned._ "

With that, the meeting broke up and Udina left the conference room to head home in order to pack for this trip. Still, he was unnerved a bit by the fact that they were taking a small battlegroup instead of a single diplomatic ship. But he could see some of the reasoning behind it as well. Not that he liked it at all, still he had the suspicion that Lasky was planning something, ever since he had replaced Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood as CINC-Navy he had proven to have much of Hood's wit and cleverness.

* * *

 **0730 Hours, February 13th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Epsilon Eridani System, Eridani II, Planet Reach**

 **Reach Orbital Yards**

The diplomatic ship _Orient Express_ was small, barely fifty meters long, yet it moved with purposeful grace through the orderly controlled chaos of the massive orbital yards that were capable of cranking out over a hundred ships a month on a wartime footing.

Udina couldn't help but be awed by the massive display of industrial might as well as little disturbed, because he also knew that the shipyards at Sol were just as capable as the ones over Reach, possibly even more so.

There was a soft thrum and thrusters fired, the _Orient Express_ changed course branching away from one of the main maneuvering lanes and into a small secondary lane that led away from the yards and towards the docks.

Udina typed in a couple of commands and the viewscreen at the front of the passenger cabin had it's image change from that of the UNSC diplomatic corps to that of the forward cameras. The rebuilt Reach Orbital Station Gamma loomed ahead of the shuttle, a three kilometer ring composed of numerous communication arrays, hangers, docking bays. Numerous ships were docked to the massive space station, nearby in formation were four UNSC warships, IFF tags popped up next to them along with additional information, ship name, class name, and formation assignment.

At Station Gamma itself, a fifth ship, this one a cruiser was still docked with the station despite being powered up. The thrusters fired again and the _Orient Express_ angled towards the station and a moment later the main engines went silent and the shuttle coasted in on the momentum it had already.

" _Ambassador, we're on final approach now to the_ Leviathan _._ " The pilot of the _Orient Express_ said as the shuttle lined up on approach vectors.

The minutes passed as the shuttle approached the massive _Maelstrom_ class Heavy Cruiser. The warship was one that had been produced by Reyes-McLees Shipbuilding company judging by it's more organic look to it's flowing lines than the more traditional "brick with guns" design that SinoViet Heavy Machinery had submitted for the _Maelstrom_ class. The strange sweeping up "wings" that were attached to the side of the hull proved that much.

As the shuttle got closer to the huge warship, Udina began to pick out the Lightmass CIWS and Pulse Laser mounts that dotted the ship's hull, the secondary guns becoming visible as well as the missile pods and nuclear missile silos.

Finally the _Orient Express_ changed course and glided into one of the hangar bays. Udina noted that the normal collection of Pelican Heavy Dropships, Roadrunner Light Dropships, and Osprey Dropships abounded.

A moment later, the shuttle settled onto it's landing carriage with a muffled _clang_. The thrumming of the engines dying away to nothing. Udina stood up, the other members of the negotiation team doing the same. Through the window, the service crew was already busy unloading the bags of the negotiation team and loading them onto carts that would likely take said bags to their assigned quarters.

Twenty minutes later found Udina in his assigned quarters onboard the _Leviathan_ , they were nice in their own way. The walls were wood paneled (although Udina knew that it wasn't real wood) and the floors were actual ceramic tile instead of the cold titanium that the rest of the ship had. The only downside was the ceiling, like the rest of the ship, there was a maze of conduits and pipes that only the crew probably knew what the exact purpose of each one was.

The idea however of having Task Force Leviathan use a parade formation when it arrived, was looking like it would be a much better option.

Under his feet the _Leviathan_ rumbled and slowly began to back out of her slip. Thrusters firing as the ship eased backwards with immense grace. Once clear, the deck rumbled more deeply as the ship's massive repulsor engines fired, effortlessly pushing the ship clear of the station. After forming up with her escort, the task force headed out, quickly maneuvering clear of the orbital yards. The small group powered towards one of the two Epsilon Eridani Interstellar Jump Points or IJP.

" _All hands prepare for slipspace transit._ " The helmsman announced as the small task force arrived at the IJP.

With a great flash of light, reality tore as the slipspace drive fired, creating a swirling portal. The heavy cruiser shot into it and began its journey into the great unknown.

* * *

 **1540 Hours, February 13th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

The relay hung in space, it wasn't that often but was used often enough to warrant it's activation. Lines and runes made from element zero illuminated itself as a electrical current was applied due to the sister relay being used.

With a brilliant flare of light and energy, the immense ship UNSCN _Leviathan_ decelerated from superluminal transit, all viewports illuminated with all exterior and navigation lights lit. Moments later, four smaller ships decelerated illuminated in much the same fashion.

Within minutes of exiting the relay, the five human warships assumed parade formation, from launch bays fighters launched, rigged for parade. Viewports, exterior, and running lights all at maximum illumination. These fighter squadrons almost immediately assumed parade formation themselves.

It was a display of testament and skill to the sailors and pilots who manned their craft.

The arrival of the UNSC delegation brought civilian traffic around the immense space station as everyone stopped and stared as the formation prowled forth like sharks. The defense fleet of the immense station assumed a defensive posture.

Donnel Udina couldn't help but openly gap at the Citadel's massive size as he looked out the viewport. Sure he had seen bigger from the Forerunners far bigger in fact, but there was just something _about_ the Citadel that was absolutely enthralling. Alien runes and circutary in three different colors covered the station's exterior. From what little he could see of the interior of the station, he could make out a vast city, a bustling metropolis that made some of the largest cities on Earth look pathetic.

Tapping in a few commands, he was able to get a solid look at the defense fleet thanks to the powerful sensors of the _Leviathan_. Most of the ships were small, less than three hundred meters but bigger than a hundred twenty meters. The sensors had already identified them as analogues to UNSC sloops and had listed their estimated capabilities, which wasn't stellar in most respects although if the sensors were anything to go by, they had insane acceleration curves. The other ships were corvette, frigate, destroyer, light cruiser, heavy cruiser, and battlecruiser analogues. But one ship stood out, it had the designation of a Battleship analogue, which immediately attracted Udina's attention.

The ship in question was massive compared to the rest of the ships assembled, it was shaped like an immense cross with a large oval like gap in the center. The sensors put it's length at one-point-seven kilometers in length, with a beam of two-kilometers, and a height of one-point-six kilometers. The power generation was easily on par with late Human-Covenant War _Marathon_ class Heavy Cruisers, that thing would be problematic if a shooting situation developed.

Messages flew back and forth between the incoming the UNSC fleet and Citadel Flight Control, clearing things up. Permissions were granted and Task Force Leviathan earned the distinction of being the very first human ships to enter the grasp of the Citadel.

Udina gaped as he realized that all _five_ of the massive arms each had a city that made the largest on Earth look tiny. Glittering mats of dull yellow light emanate from buildings and air vehicles as the beings living in the cities went around their daily lives. Occasionally he spotted an air vehicle that had flashing lights that was heading to some location in a hurry.

A couple of times he thought he saw what could be a small drone trying to get a closer look at the massive warships before a small sloop came in, almost immediately upon spotting the ship, the drone quickly dove into one of the city arms. It reminded him of the occasionally overly curious tourist craft over Mars or Sol that strayed a little too close to an orbital yard and had a corvette sent out to chase them back to the point where civilian craft were supposed to be regarding military yards.

Still, he had a suspicion that those were likely camera drones belonging to news organizations. It meant that Task Force Leviathan's arrival at the Citadel hadn't gone unnoticed, which was both good and bad. It was good because it meant that word was bound to get around quicker about humanity arriving at the Citadel for the first time. It was bad because that meant there would be reporters as well.

The engines of the _Leviathan_ rumbled and the Cruiser advanced, the large ring that formed the base of the Citadel grew more prominent. Udina was able to pick out multiple shipyards and docking ports, with the vast majority of those occupied by various ships, mostly civilian but he did spot several large military ships of several different designs.

The ring grew larger until it was an encompassing feature around the UNSC warships. Thrusters fired and the ships entered graceful turns that was seemingly impossible for their size. The ships lining up with their respective docks with a level of precision that could only be occur through networked artificial intelligences.

Udina gathered his things, strapped on a portable kinetic barrier generator and a light ballistic vest over his torso before donning his clothes. Sadly, he wasn't allowed his trusty Smith and Wesson Adder pistol, but such was the life of a diplomat. He grabbed his bag just as the _Leviathan_ finished the turn that lined her up with her slip.

For him it was to navigate the winding corridors of the _Leviathan_ , he met several other members of the negotiation team, these people had experience in other important fields. But while they weren't career politicians, but knowledge is power, and these professionals had knowledge in other areas: history, economics, and several industries.

Knowledge such as that would be useful bargaining chips in the peace discussions that were coming up.

An elevator dinged and Udina boarded the elevator followed by his colleges. He hit the proper command the elevator sprang into motion, moving silently along it's electromagnetic rails within the ship.

" _All hands initiate docking protocols._ " The captain said over the ship's intercom.

The elevator stopped and the door slid open allowing for twelve Orbital Drop Shock Troopers in their instantly recognizable obsidian armor, gunmetal grey body gloves, and dark blue reflective visors. On magnetic plates secured to their hips were M6H5 Magnum Pistols while in the hands of eight of the ODSTs were sleek silvery grey BR150SR Battle Rifles, four soldiers however didn't have BR105s but of the four there was two HAR-1s and two M150 CAWS.

With that the elevator slid close once again and began to glide through the interior of the cruiser once more. The elevator dinged once again and this time, the doors slid open, revealing a busy passageway. After moving through what seemed to be a maze of corridors, they arrived at the airlock.

Moments later, a staccato pinging rang through the hull, almost as if the docking area had artificial gravity followed by a series of clangs as what could only be docking clamps attached themselves to the _Leviathan_ 's hull.

The communication piece in his ear chimed and the voice of the ship's AI came through. " _We are docked Ambassador, linking up the airlock with the shipway...done. You may enter the airlock, external cameras show that there is already a welcome delegation waiting for you._ "

"Thanks Snowman." Udina replied as he palmed the control for the airlock to open and the delegation stepped inside, a moment later the hatchway behind them sealed with a _hiss_. Moments later the gentle hum of pumps engaging filled the chamber as additional air was pumped into the airlock in order to bring it up to station's onboard atmospheric pressure, this was followed by the decontamination cycle, a combination of powerful ultraviolet lights and a decontaminating mist was used in order to kill the majority of germs so that no one would give anyone else something nasty.

" _Pressure stabilization and decontamination cycles complete._ " The specialized dumb AI for the task said.

Udina palmed the control and the door slid open, allowing him to see the four Station Security Officers as well as what appeared to be maybe a tour guide. He smiled and stepped over the threshold.

* * *

 **CODEX ENTRY** \- _Starships_ \- Maelstrom class Heavy Cruiser

Coming in at 1.322-Terran Kilometers in length, with a beam of 400-Terran Meters at its widest point, and a height of 440-Terran Meters. The _Maelstrom_ is despite being classified as a heavy cruiser, is comparable in many respects in terms of size to most Citadel "Super-Dreadnoughts".

Regardless of the apparent size differences between the _Maelstrom_ and Citadel Cruisers. The class is the undisputed backbone of the exo-atmospheric United Nations Space Command Defense Forces Navy, the _Maelstrom_ class Heavy Cruiser represents an intriguing blend of Forerunner technology, Covenant technology, Mass Effect technology, and human ingenuity.

The main engines are based on that of a Covenant design, being repulsor engines. The energy shields and slipspace drive however are based on Forerunner designs, making them incredibly durable and incredibly fast as well as accurate respectively. In order to improve increased mobility in vacuum as well as in-atmosphere, the ship has a Citadel Heavy Cruiser sized Element Zero core, woefully undersized for the job, but it's sufficient for its task. However this means that compared to ships of similar size that use element zero, it's not as agile or fast. But this countered by the energy shields and armor plating used, as well as the emergency omni-directional hardlight barrier. The sensors however are of a pure human design.

Indeed, the capabilities of the armor scheme utilized by the _Maelstrom_ class is classified but it's composition however is known to have several layers of ablative ceramics in order to dissipate laser and plasma impacts, followed by a perfect Iron Whisker Composite that forms the exterior protection for the metal foam armor underneath. All that's known about this metal foam armor is that it's a composite metal foam that takes a molecularly reinforced titanium-tungsten alloy and blends it with a Forerunner derived metal called Kavacha. Also in use is shock-hardening fluids to help reduce the sheer force from mass impacts, while special sealants can be released to seal small hull breaches almost immediately. The armor is also incredibly thick, a full three terran meters.

The offensive and defensive armament of the _Maelstrom_ class is very heavy, two Mark I MEFMACs along with three energy projectors formed the main spinal armament for first-run ships. However after the Shanxi Affair these weapons were upgraded with Mark II MEFMACs and replaced with Hardlight Accelerators respectively. Over three hundred oversized Inferno missile pods compliment the spinal armament as well as two heavy mass accelerators and fourteen heavy turrets. Defensive armament is fairly typical for UNSC warships, the heavy turrets, pulse lasers and lightmass CIWS are all used in defense against enemy fighters, torpedoes, and missiles.

The _Maelstrom_ also carries a full wing of forty-eight UNSC fighters as well as twelve to fifteen dropships depending on the models carried and thanks to its modularity can be converted into an escort configuration to carry even more craft.

* * *

 **AN:** Well, another chapter bites the dust. I just hope to god that I can get the honest politics that are bound to happen in the next chapter done. That said, can you spot the nod to Mass Effect?

That said, this is probably the last chapter of the year. So on that happy note folks, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.


	13. Negotiations and Shows

**AN: I will admit that I am still new at this fusion fic thing. You guys absolutely rock, as of this chapter, The Reclaimer Effect has 139,931-views, 1,171-followers, 762-favorites, and is in 11-communities.**

 **Bold-italiced font also indicates footage playing.**

 **However nothing is perfect either, I feel that my inexperience with writing politics as well as my poor understanding of economics really shone through in the last chapter, best to come clean and outright admit it; I have absolutely no experience in writing politics or really much of an understanding in national level economics. Also due to the sheer number of reviews that I can't answer via PMing, I am going to forgo it this time and get right to the action.**

 **Also, one last thing, Happy New Year and here's to 2019!**

* * *

 **1600 Hours, February 13th 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel Station**

 **Presidium Ring, Third Level, Naval Docks**

The Orbital Drop Shock Troopers tensed subtly at the sight of the local security troops. Udina however looked at the way that the security troops actually took a step back in surprise. Apparently the sight of the ODSTs had shocked them. Regardless they were lightly armed and armored.

The four guards were Turians, the various first contact packages had explained as such while the person who appeared to be a tour guide was an Asari. Her blue skin was a dead giveaway.

"Greetings" she said, the implant in his ear dutifully translating for him. "On behalf of the Citadel Council, welcome to the Citadel. It's traditional when meeting new species to provide a tour of the Citadel, to showcase not only the heart of galactic civilization, but also for delegates to see the beauty of the station and the average citizen of citadel space."

Udina nodded. Best to get the lay of the land for the station, maybe learn some interesting facts, about the station itself. Part of him also wanted to explore the station, see what it had to offer. But another part of him was dead set against touring the station, mainly because he wanted to get to the politicking as fast as possible.

Regardless, it was tradition after all. "Right, lead on ma'am." Udina replied and the tour guide nodded.

"Follow me" she said.

The jetway (or would it be shipway? Udina wasn't sure) was fairly bare, although there was additional civilian security that slotted in behind them. Further boosting the escort, it was Udina noted a nice touch, mainly because it further supplemented the ODSTs.

The concourse that the boarding tunnel was connected too was another matter entirely however. There was numerous windows that showed the interior of the ring and the ships docked, numerous rows of chairs for sapiants who would be waiting for their flight to who knew where to sit, read, and possibly sleep before boarding.

That said, the concourse was _packed_. There was dozens in not hundreds of reporters and camera drones of two different types. One was strobing bright flashes periodically in the blinding white flash of still camera and the other had the dull red light of video recorder.

Moreover was the noise, dozens of voices yelled questions. The translator only managed to catch a few questions but they were the questions that he had imagined that reporters would have.

"Where are you from?"

"What's the name of your government?"

"What's the name of your species?"

"Make a hole!" One of the officers in front shouted as loud as he could and with what seemed to be reluctance, the reporters cleared a path. That reluctance was understandable, it likely wasn't everyday that a new species arrived on the Citadel.

Unsurprisingly there were more security officers trying to hold back the tide of reporters and overly curious civilians. There was more shouted questions, this time from late reporters as well as civilians. More camera flashes erupted as those reporters caught their first glimpse of the newcomers, as well as yelled questions.

He did catch one interesting question though, one that peaked his interest.

"Are you going to join the Citadel?"

It was an honest question, but it was one that set Udina's mind in motion. Thinking about the upcoming meeting, the questions that the Citadel Council will likely be asking, the answers to those questions, not to mention the questions that he should be asking as well as the most likely answers.

The fact of the matter was however that considering humanity's history, the short answer to that question was "no". But the long answer was "maybe", honestly thanks to the Human-Covenant War. The UEG didn't really want much to do with aliens, the civilian population didn't want to have the military to be limited in its power and capabilities. Yet he also knew that the politicians back home would want to have a larger say in what happened on the Citadel.

The concourse however was smaller than he thought it would be. Sure there was a number of gates as well as security checkpoints. After passing through the twisting hallways, encountering a few more reporters as well as more civilians.

One thing that Udina did have to admit was that the Citadel was a maze, but after twenty minutes. They came to a elevator and the tour began in earnest.

Great glittering buildings rose into the heavens and there were throngs of people everywhere. The tour guide explained how the Citadel had been built some fifty thousand years ago, by an ancient race called the Protheans and how they were responsible for the Mass Relay network as well which made modern interstellar travel possible.

Each of the arms were apparently divided up by first arm name, followed by a ward name to which each one had different codes on what was allowed were. It reminded him a lot of cities back in human space. Though, it quickly became apparent that the tour was a little long winded in Udina's opinion.

However as the tour progressed, the ODSTs actually began to grow, while not entirely laxed but they adopted a more friendly posture towards civilians while remaining serious. Regardless they were becoming more accustomed to their environment as they progressed through the Citadel.

Finally they arrived at the base of the tower, the day/night cycle tinging the artificial sky in a splash of reds and oranges as the simulated sun began to set. It seemed that life never ended on the station, there was always something occurring.

In essence, the Citadel it seemed was like the great cities of New York or Shanghai. It never slept, the city was constantly alive. The dull thrum of air vehicles and the sounds of foot traffic hadn't subsided much at all despite the day being almost over, the vibrant life of the city was still there.

They passed through a checkpoint before boarding an elevator that was at the base of the Citadel Tower. It groaned under the combined weight of ten local civilian security officers, a dozen fully armored and armed ODSTs, as well as that of the negotiation team. Udina actually wondered if the elevator was actually hitting its weight limit.

To his surprise however, the elevator sluggishly began to crawl upwards. However it wasn't accelerating very quickly despite being a maglev elevator, before long one of the local peacekeepers no they were called C-SEC, a Turian to be precise, began to shift from foot-to-foot, being either nervous or agitated.

Finally, several minutes later, the peacekeeper spoke out loud. "Oh come on! The elevators aren't usually this slow!" in an agitated voice. A moment later, the Asari that appeared to be the leader tore a painful strip off of him, in his own language from the sounds of it.

At least one of the ODSTs snickered and even Udina found that he had to smile at the local's agitation. His nervousness of the upcoming meeting had just evaporated like an ice cube in an oven on broil. Like it or not, the C-SEC officer had unwittingly relieved the stress and tension. Simple jokes like that were quite capable of relieving stress and worry.

Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity but was likely closer to twenty minutes the elevator came to a stop. To Udina's surprise however the room that it opened it didn't reveal a large atrium like he had been expecting but instead what appeared to be a large meeting room with fairly ornate furniture although Udina did note that there wasn't any seating for reporters. With a nod, the negotiation team crossed the threshold and entered the room beyond.

It was very ornate he noted, but the chairs didn't look like they would be able to support the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. Their tour guide quickly spoke up. "Councilors, may I present Ambassador Donnel Udina, as well as attendant team and escort of humanity." she said.

The Asari Councilor nodded and smiled as she stood up. "Thank you Rilah." she said as she approached and held out a hand which Udina took and shook firmly.

"I am Councilor Tevos, I represent the Asari Republics. It's a pleasure to formally greet you and your race." she said.

"Thank you Councilor, the pleasure is mine. I represent the United Earth Government as well as it's military arm, the United Nations Space Command Defense Forces." Udina replied.

Past the Asari Councilor, Udina could see two more people sitting down. One was a Salarian wearing a cloak and the other was a smartly dressed Turian. He immediately assumed that they were the councilors for the Salarians and Turians judging by their races.

"I have to ask though, what's the purpose of your companions?" Tevos asked.

"No one is all knowing Councilor, unless you count computers. Now I am fairly knowledgeable with the various computer systems used by humanity as well as political sciences. My companions are Doctor Andrew Hamons and Doctor Arima Erisa, they are knowledgeable in history and medical sciences respectively, which admittedly I am not as knowledgeable in." Udina admitted gesturing to the man and woman respectively.

Tevos nodded, she knew that admitting that you weren't excellent in all fields wasn't a sign of weakness but a sign of strength for it showed that you knew the extent of your abilities. She allowed herself a smile.

The Asari who had led them in, gracefully stepped out of way. Though, he noted that the motion was very fluid for someone who wasn't a Spartan. So, the aide likely doubled as a bodyguard and judging by her movements likely had spec-ops training.

"Have a seat, Ambassador and Doctors, so that we can get underway." Tevos said before looking at the ODSTs. "Your welcome to sit down as well." she said.

The ODSTs eyed the furniture then the apparent leader stepped forward and unpolarized his visor. "With respect ma'am, as comfortable as those chairs look, I doubt that they'll be able to support our weight."

Tevos' face became impassive as she looked over the armor that the ODSTs were wearing before nodding. "Of course."

Udina motioned for the others to sit down. The chair was as he expected, fairly comfortable. "Right, let's get down to business. May I introduce Councilor Emaw Ujia of the Salarian Union and Councilor Holus Gorgius of the Turian Hierarchy." Tevos said as she sat down.

Udina reached forward and offered his hand. "It's an honor to meet you both." he said.

"Likewise, Ambassador. It's not very common that a new species comes to the Citadel, maybe once in the lifetime of an Asari." Holus said taking Udina's hand firmly and shaking it.

"Indeed, to have such a thing occur, it's a rarity." Ujia said, speaking surprisingly fast and in a higher pitched tone.

Udina blinked in surprise but nodded. "Indeed, now if you don't mind. I think we should get down to business immediately." he said, pausing briefly before continuing. "Word about the conflict at Shanxi has a number of planetary governments in an utter panic and people are fearing that we have another Long War brewing, a conflict that even over seventy years after it ended, we still don't know the exact death toll. Hundreds of individual colonies were attacked with the defenders either successfully protecting the colony until it was evacuated or being completely overrun with the fleeing civilian ships being mere target practice. We haven't forgotten it and likely never will." Udina said shaking his head.

"Agreed, peace talks first, exchange of culture second." Ujia said.

"I concur, we need to discuss peace terms, reparations, the transfer of POWs, as well as who is exactly at fault here." Udina agreed.

"I personally believe that for the Relay 314 Incident that the United Earth Government should be held to some degree of accountability." Holus demanded and Tevos shot him a warning look.

Udina's eyes narrowed. "Excuse me Councilor, but the Turian Hierarchy were the ones that opened fire unprovoked on the United Nations Space Command Naval Vessel _London_ and the science ship _Ellen Anders_. Thus you are the ones who are responsible not only for the deaths of some eight hundred fifty good men and women onboard the _London_ , but also responsible for the sailors, soldiers, and pilots who were apart of the Shanxi Defense Fleet that were killed in action as well as any defense militia killed during the opening hours of your invasion and the civilians who died during the evacuation of the colony." he shot back.

"Space is dangerous, and activating a dormant Mass Relay violates Citadel Law. That law is in place for a very good reason. Had the Spirits been cruel, your science ship could've unleashed something on the galaxy that could have threatened civilization as we know it." Holus replied.

Ujia began looking thoughtful.

Udina snorted not amused in the slightest. "Humanity isn't new to the void and it's dangers Councilor and even if we had unleashed something nasty by activating a Mass Relay, we would've sent a fleet in to contain the situation and I am sure that you've seen the recordings of the second fleet in action."

Holus opened his mouth to reply when Ujia cut him off. "Clearly some perspective is needed then. About two thousand years ago, a group of Salarian explorers activated a dormant mass relay and went beyond it. There they encountered a species known as the Rachni, something went terribly wrong during First Contact and they surged through the mass relay, taking over nearly an entire cluster of star systems in a matter of weeks, and any attempts of negotiation failed. However, we began to push them back mainly because while they were ferocious fighters both in space and on the ground. The Rachni were only capable of basic tactical maneuvers in space which gave us a distinct advantage, then _they_ appeared." She said, pausing as she waited for Udina to nod in understanding before continuing.

 _Good. He seems to be following and understanding._ Ujia thought as she gauged Udina's reaction.

"Ships with organic lines that made them look like deep sea predators, with thick purple-blue hulls that could stop a full broadside from a dreadnought in its tracks, a method of FTL that we hadn't seen before, a type of shielding that could block even lasers, were armed with a host of _plasma_ weaponry that burned through kinetic barriers and hulls with alarming ease as well as laser weaponry that made short work of even the largest torpedo and fighter swarms plus had little trouble menacing even cruisers and dreadnoughts, and carried fighters that while bulky were incredibly fast, had the same type of shielding as the warships, as well as the same types of weaponry. This new unexpected faction was an alliance of alien races known as the Covenant. At around the same time, the Rachni began to use advanced tactics in space and within a month, we lost all of the progress we had made against them and thensome." She said as Udina's mind raced, it couldn't be they had fought the Covenant Empire? If that was the case, then why hadn't they been integrated into Covenant? Unless, _unless_ their war with the Covenant wasn't a true war like the they had waged against humanity but instead a war by proxy. Yes, that had to be it, it was the only theory that made any sense!

 _Well, he certainly seems to be shocked by something. Actually, scratch that. The entire human negotiation team seemed to have been shocked at the mention of the Covenant. He didn't know that we had that in common._ Ujia thought as she gauged the reactions of the humans.

The Salarian Councilor continued her little history lesson. "With desperation mounting, we built ships that were faster and more powerful than anything before them, developed more powerful weaponry, and uplifted an entire species to fight them. We won but the costs was extraordinary, billions dead and millions more wounded or missing. In light of the 'Rachni Wars' which lasted a century and brought unparalleled levels of destruction, the Citadel Council made it illegal to activate dormant mass relays without their express permission and gave that law the harshest of penalties."

Udina held up his hand. "Hold on, did you just say the _Covenant_?" he asked shocked.

"Yes." Ujia said bluntly.

Udina leaned back in his chair and suddenly looked solemn. "Thirty billion" he whispered.

"Thirty billion what?" Tevos asked confused.

"Thirty billion is the lowest accepted figure of casualties both military and civilian, in The Long War. It goes by many names: The War to end all Wars, The First Contact War, The Survival War, War for Survival, The Long War, to xenophobe's it's called the War of Alien Aggression. But in the end it doesn't matter what you call it, the conflict's name has been burned into humanity's memory with a red hot poker and it's most common name is the Human-Covenant War. Twenty-seven years of continuous conflict where _everything_ was on the line. The war was so massive in it's scope, that nearly all families today have at the very least _someone_ who took part in some way during that conflict, whether it be a mere civilian running away from the aliens or working in the factories and yards that produced the equipment used by the military, to a member of the Colonial Militia, to a member of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, Air Force, or as a Naval Sailor fighting the aliens in the skies, on the sea, on land, or in the void. Those that took part in it are called Humanity's Greatest Generation, because they played a major role in allowing humanity to survive the alien onslaught through a combination of luck, skill, grit, and determination. Even an Ambassador like me, has someone who fought in that conflict." Udina replied.

"Orbital Drop- hold on a _second_ , that's absolutely insane!" Holus breathed out once he realized what exactly Orbital Drop Shock Troopers were.

Udina mentally counted to two before Captain Anderson replied. "Feet first into hell, Councilor." and the ambassador just knew the ODST in question was grinning.

Holus for his part looked flabbergasted at, well, the sheer insanity of the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. That wasn't surprising Udina figured, the ODSTs were below only the Spartans in terms of how elite they were, it also required a special kind of crazy or bravery to join up.

"Before the Human-Covenant War, we had nearly a thousand colonies, a collection of planetary colonies of the domed and non-domed variety as well as colony space stations. During the Human-Covenant War however, the Covenant almost completely destroyed the Outer and minor colonies and were starting to plunge into the Inner Colonies when the war finally ended. Domed colonies had been cracked open with particle cannons and pulse lasers before having their interior turned to glass with plasma cannons and plasma torpedoes, colonies that had an atmosphere had their surfaces burn until they were but glass resulting in drastic environmental changes to the planet in question, colony space stations were simply cut apart by energy projectors and plasma torpedoes. The only reason we won was because the Covenant Hierarchs, the political leaders of the Covenant, made some _very_ poor political decisions in the closing months of the war, that and some absolutely incredible luck, mainly a civil war suddenly tearing the Covenant apart with the Separatists siding with us, allowed us to turn it around." Udina said.

"So wait, the Covenant Empire is no more?" Tevos asked.

"For the most part yes, we still have remnant factions that follow some variation of the Covenant's religion, but aside from the occasional attempted smash and grab and piracy they are nothing more than nuisance now. The Sangheili, Kig-Yar, and Jiralhanae are now free of the lies that the Hierarchs spread and were the reason for the Human-Covenant War, relations with the Sangheili are strong, but are lukewarm at best with the Jiralhanae, although most of the nations of the Kig-Yar Confederacy are outright hostile to us." Udina replied.

Tevos slumped back in her chair and exhaled. "I feel as though a great weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. Like all Councilors after the Rachni Wars, we all feared that the Covenant would return one day in force and everything we ever knew would be swept aside like a flood before the storm. We knew that our chances of surviving a full blown war was next to none if the Covenant brought their full blown military might against us, plus we hadn't even seen their ground forces so we had no idea what to expect from them. For all knew, they would be able to sweep us aside like we were nothing. Thanks to your war with them, you have removed a threat to the peace and stability of the entire galaxy." she said and both Ujia and Holus nodded.

"Agreed, while I hold my grievances for you activating Mass Relays without our consent, the fact that you removed quite possibly the biggest single threat galactic peace and stability offers a counterbalance to the crime of activating Mass Relays without the Citadel Council's consent. Because of that, I am more willing for negotiations." Holus said.

Udina allowed his himself a small smile, they hadn't even been known to the galactic community yet, humanity had unwittingly done them a tremendous favor. "That's excellent, right so we want to have a cessation of hostilities hammered out, but to do that we need to discuss the exchange of POWs and reparations." he said.

"Let's get the reparations out of the way first, so what level of reparations are looking for?" Holus asked.

Udina looked thoughtful. "Between paying for wrongful death settlements to family members and next of kin, paying for funeral rites of those wrongful deaths, paying for relocation costs of colonists who don't want to stay on Shanxi, paying for rebuilding costs for those that do want to stay on Shanxi, and finally paying a stipend for suffering/loss of irreplaceable personal items. It's honestly a lot to cover and without an exchange rate, it can't involve anything monetary unless an exchange rate is introduced, such reparations would have to be in the form of something else such as raw ores or refined materials." He noted.

Tevos gave an almost inaudible sigh. "Which means that's something else we need to work out." she said.

"Cessation of hostilities however is agreed upon?" Udina asked.

Holus nodded. "Agreed, how does 1100 hours at the start of the next month sound?" he asked.

Udina tipped his head in thought and then said his response.

Tevos inwardly groaned, it was going to take awhile before the two reached an agreement.

* * *

 **1050 Hours, February 14th 2625 (approximate Citadel Time and Date)**

 **Serpent Nebula, Widow System, the Citadel**

 **Zakera Arm, Hontok Ward, Coatirane Park**

The Citadel Arms were always bustling life, sapiants went about their daily lives. Today however, there was four things that were _the_ hot topic of discussion on the Citadel. The first was about humanity's impressive arrival that had involved one Super-Dreadnought, two Dreadnoughts, and two Medium Cruisers, along with eight fighter squadrons all in parade formation. It had showed that they weren't intimidated in the slightest. That and thanks to the UNSC's Super-Dreadnought named _Leviathan_ , a whole new host of broadcasting groups were coming over the air waves at the Citadel. Organizations such as the "National Broadcasting Company" and "Outer Colony Daily News" revealed more in-depth about what was going within human space. Not to mention informational stuff.

The second was that humanity's government, called the United Earth Government were in negotiations with the Citadel Council in order to stop the Incident at Relay 314 as the Turian news broadcasting stations were describing it as and The Shanxi Affair as the majority of human news broadcasting stations were calling it. Offering differing perspectives on the incident, the Turians were calling the humans careless for activating a Mass Relay without asking, while the humans were calling the Turians mavericks whose first response to someone breaking the law was "Shoot first, ask questions maybe later".

The third thing was that one of the Citadel's most feared enemies, the Covenant Empire was quite simply no more. Having apparently died around seventy years ago at the end of an extremely long war between them and humanity. A conflict that had left an unknown number of colonies destroyed and billions dead. Having torn itself apart in a brutal civil war, the result of the truth being revealed about the war, poor political decisions, among other things.

The fourth and final thing was something that the UEG/UNSC peace delegation had brought along with them. A large portable air strip, along with a squadron fighters that bore a livery that didn't come close to matching the paint scheme of the other UNSC fighters, not to mention the design was completely different. According to the occasional adverts that were airing, they were the UNSC Navy's Aerial Demonstration Squadron, the name of which was something that already had people buzzing with excitement and anticipation: the Blue Angels. They were flying craft that had sleek lines and appeared that they were just as much at home in the void as they were in atmosphere, glittering navy blue and gold metallic paint covered the craft.

For Galactic News Network reporter Sulal T'scais, this could easily be the one of the biggest stories of the year. No one knew what an "Aerial Demonstration Squadron" was, thus when word about the aerial demonstration squadron was putting a show on at Contraine Park, the largest park on Zakera Ward, fourteen GSkm wide and thirty GSkm long or seven terran kilometers (Tkm) wide and fifteen Tkm long. It was renowned for the fact that it was a general purpose park and thus could be used for anything, some of the largest music concerts in the history of the Citadel had been played there.

Today however, a temporary air strip had been laid out along with a flight line, where the craft seemingly glittered in the lights of the buildings around them. While men and women in dark blue uniforms went over the craft that proudly wore their livery. Regardless, the craft actually had a predatory look them.

Sulal wasn't the most impressive in terms of build, with a height of 3.6576-GSm. Her teal complexion had a smattering of purple markings on her face. Plus she had never been proficient with biotics. That said, she had seen a lot in the two hundred fifty years she had been alive.

" _So what's it like thus over there Sulal?_ " The news anchor, a Drell named Sohu Muel, said in her ear.

"We're live in three...two...one...we're live!" The driver of the news airvan as well as her cameraman, a Quarian surprisingly named Yasin'Sasal nar Qwib-Qwib, said excitedly.

"Well Sohu, as you can see the crowd that's gathered here is easily one of the largest that I have ever seen during my career with GNN on the Citadel and it's seemingly getting bigger with each passing minute as more people arrive, particularly with the show set to start within ten minutes. With good reason, apparently the Blue Angels have been putting on performances for hundreds of years." Sulal said, reciting the lines she had written down before going on the air.

" _Sulal, when you say performance, you mean like dancing right?_ " Sohu replied, confusion seeping into his normally rough coentrao.

Sulal smiled. "Exactly like that, except instead of using a dance floor, their stage is the sky. What's even more impressive though, is that the maneuvers the pilots will be doing, they won't be doing them with VI assistance or g-suits for that matter." she said.

" _No VI assistance? That sounds incredibly dangerous, if anything goes wrong during a particularly tight formation then it could end in disaster. But I don't get the reasoning behind the lack of g-suits, even with inertia dampeners during high-energy maneuvers you can get enough bleed through that you can lose consciousness. I know this from experience._ " Sohu replied shocked.

"That's what I said when I interviewed the squadron commander. According to him, the Blue Angels have been doing shows without VI assistance and without g-suits since its inception over six hundred earth years ago. Not much has actually changed since its inception, the craft that they use have changed naturally and a few additional maneuvers have been added, but the pilots of the Blue Angels are some of the best that the United Nations Space Command Navy and Marine Corps has to offer. The craft they are flying however has been in service with the Blue Angels for almost sixty years, the planes are called Sabers and apparently for roughly a forty year stretch starting roughly eighty years ago these craft were back bone of the UNSC Navy multirole force, but now with the exception of these birds; the Sabers are all retired. Not because they were dangerous or anything, but they were merely replaced by newer craft." Sulal said.

" _So why haven't they changed to newer craft?_ " Sohu asked.

"Simple, with three-dimensional printing technology, they can make any part that they would possibly need. Plus the Sabers used by the Blue Angels were built specifically for them, to make it so that they can easily operate in both atmosphere or the void of space, without requiring multiple types of aircraft. That and compared to the newer craft, the Saber has proven to be a more forgiving craft." Sulal replied with a smile gracing her lips.

At that moment, the speakers that had been set up squealed into life. A male voice came to life. "Good morning ladies and gentlemen, first I am going to say that we never have had an audience as diverse as this before." The statement actually got a bit of a laugh from the crowd. "Now, on behalf of the United Earth Government and the United Nations Space Command Defense Forces are proud to present the Naval Aerial Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels."

"Oh crap, I lost track of time! They're starting, Yasin start filming the show!" Sulal said quickly.

A moment later, the pilots began to walk down the flight line in perfect line abreast formation. Marching towards the planes, which were now fully prepped and ready to fly. "Flying Blue Angel Number Six, the Opposing Solo, from Aincrad City on planet Reach, Lieutenant Novák Alexandra." The announcer said as the woman in question exchange a salute with her plane's crew chief and together they walked to the craft. The pilot surmounting the ladder and climbing into the cockpit.

"Flying Blue Angel number five, the lead solo, from San Francisco on planet Earth, Captain Qiao Shun." The announcer said as a lanky man with a dark skin complexion saluted his crew chief and went to his fighter. Clamoring up the ladder and getting into the cockpit.

"Flying Blue Angel number four, in the slot position, from New Fernfield on planet Skopje, Lieutenant Commander Glenn Hawkins." The announcer said as a short woman with a light complexion and an easy going look, saluted her crew chief and went to her fighter.

"Flying Blue Angel number three, in the left wingman position, from New Homestead on planet Arcadia, Lieutenant Luciano Ramos Silveira." The announcer said as a powerfully built man of modest height with a fair skin complexion saluted his crew chief and went to his fighter. Climbing into the cockpit and going over preflight checks.

"Flying Blue Angel number two, in the right wingman position, from Shackleton Crater City on the moon Luna, Lieutenant Commander Kavian Sahi." A tall man with a surprisingly dark complexion saluted his crew chief and went to his plane. With a grace that belied his height he effortlessly climbed the ladder and got into his fighter.

"And finally, flying Blue Angel number one, the squadron leader, from Iapetus on Tribute, Commander Roy Fokker." A man of average height saluted his crew chief and climbed up the ladder to his fighter.

The coordination that the pilots performed was absolutely amazing, what's more they weren't even in the air yet. Sulal found herself staring as the canopies all lowered as one, with only a minimum of hand signals being exchanged.

Then the engines powered up. A low buzzing whine that began to build in intensity as the engines spooled into life. The sound built and built, eventually becoming a weird buzzing rumble that seemed to shake her bones and cause her insides to turn soft. Then came a dull roar like thunder as harsh blue white light flared brilliantly into life as fusion torches ignited and were brought up to idle.

Hand signals were exchanged and the Sabers glided into motion. Blue Angel One started taxing as soon as permission was given. Followed by the rest of the sleek fighters with absolutely flawless precision, one after another.

The six craft moved to the runway, four of which taxied onto the runway first. "Ladies and gentlemen, please turn your attention to the runway. Blue Angels one through four will perform a daring diamond formation takeoff, transitioning into a Diamond Half Cuban Eight!" The announcer said.

The engines roared into being and the craft practically shot down the runway. The began to claw into the air and then, the number four plane slid mid takeoff till it was practically underneath the three other craft, flying so close together that it was nearly impossible to believe. Climbing into the skies of the Zakera Arm with an indomitable grace, then Sulal gasped and she heard several others do the same as the craft entered a graceful loop, rolling so that it went from an inside loop to an outside loop and now descending did an additional roll. Without breaking formation once.

 _I will never forget this day._ Sulal thought as Blue Angels 5 did a 'Dirty Roll' on takeoff with the fighter's landing gear still deployed before climbing, the landing gear retracting into the Saber's underbelly.

Then came a maneuver that got everyone cheering and wowing as they saw something that would be etched into their minds. Blue Angel Six started rolling down the runway for a "low transition to high performance climb" take off. The Saber clawed into the air and began to speed down the runway, just over two gsm above the runway. Then the fighter reached the end of the runway and with a roar like an angry thresher maw the engines went to full throttle and the pilot pitched his craft into a sheer vertical climb. It roared up into sky, an immense plume of fire trailing out of the back of the fighter as it rocketed into the air at a rate that was absolutely insane.

The display of piloting that followed was the number one video on the extranet to multiple pieces of music for the rest of the year.

* * *

 **0800 Hours, February 28th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Serpent Nebula, Widow System, The Citadel**

Udina wasn't exhausted but he was close too being so, it had taken the better part of a week to get the ceasefire signed and work on the armistice to truly begin. If anything, the politicians back home wanted to be apart of the galactic government but the civilians didn't, at least, according to the latest polls on the subject matter.

The good news though was that the Blue Angels had been an absolute hit with the people of the Citadel. Hell, from what he had heard, Thessia, the homeworld of the Asari had actually requested that the Blue Angels actually do a couple of shows.

Today though Udina was worried. Mainly because now that the Armistice had been declared. The talks over the Citadel Conventions, Fraxin Naval Treaty, and other things was slated to begin today. It wasn't something that he was looking forward too, mostly because they would look for some way to mitigate humanity's military muscle. He would have to at the very least mitigate if not outright counter those attempts.

His biggest worry however was the fact that the Citadel Council had outlawed Artificial Intelligences. That was a problem and not a small problem either, Artificial Intelligences had been used by humanity since the late 2040s. In other words they were now so involved with so many aspects of the UEG and UNSC that it was quite frankly impossible to remove them.

So how would he be able to explain that they had been around for so long that it was impossible to remove them otherwise not only would the military but civilization come to a crashing halt? The answer to that was that he had no fucking clue how he would be able to do that, but there was some good news at least. The so-called 'Dumb' and 'Micro' AIs that were used by humanity could be considered highly advanced Virtual Intelligences. Though the 'Smart' AIs were his biggest concern.

In other words, this was likely going to be his toughest challenge yet. It wasn't something that he was looking forward too. But he hoped that his compatriots would be able to help in clearing some of that up, the truth of the matter was however, he wasn't sure he would succeed.

At that moment, a pair of C-SEC aircars escorting an airvan landed on the private platform that he and his compatriots were standing on, waiting for their ride which would take them to the Citadel Tower, to continue discussions.

"Tired Udina?" Doctor Hamon asked.

Udina nodded. "Yes I am, though I am also thinking about how to handle the tricky subject of AIs." he said.

Hamon winced in understanding. "I can believe you there, I can sort of see where they are coming from. But it's impossible for us to get rid of AIs, they are just too tightly wound within our society to be removed." he said.

"I _know_ , but will they be able to see that fact? I fear that if they don't, our relations will at best be similar to that of the cold war. That is something that I do not want to occur." Udina replied.

The two doctors nodded as they climbed into the airvan, a fireteam of three ODSTs following them aboard. A moment later the door close and the airvan lumbered into the air, the C-SEC aircars assuming an escort formation as they sped towards the Citadel Tower.

* * *

 **1400 Hours,** **February 28th, 2625 (Military Calendar)**

 **Serpent Nebula, Widow System, The Citadel**

"Right, so what is on the docket for discussion for afternoon?" Udina asked after the meeting was called to order after recessing for an hour.

"Well, we covered the Citadel Conventions this morning. Today were going to be covering the Fraxin Naval Treaty as well as if possible technologies that are considered to be illegal within Citadel Space." Tevos said in response.

 _This is gonna be a long day, yesterday was bad enough having to contact the captain of the_ Leviathan _so that he could explain why we would use nuclear weapons so heavily and what the difference was between a tactical, theater, and strategic grade nuclear weapon, the same with orbital strikes. Now I gotta convince them that what they consider a Dreadnought and what we consider a Dreadnought are two very different things, this is going to be tricky._ Udina thought.

"Right, let's start with the Fraxin Naval Treaty." Tevos said. "It was originally written shortly after the Krogan Rebellions, to prevent a conflict as devastating as the Krogan Rebellions from happening again. It was meant to limit the number of Super Dreadnoughts and Dreadnoughts that a nation is allowed to build."

"What defines a Dreadnought and a Super Dreadnought under the Fraxin Naval Conference?" Udina asked curiously.

"A Dreadnought is classified as a warship that's eight hundred fifty Terran Meters to one Terran Kilometer in length with a spinal mass accelerator that runs seventy percent or more along the ship's length. A Super Dreadnought has similar standards but it's anything that's 1.1-Terran Kilometers or bigger in length, with a Mass Accelerator of the same length qualifications as the Dreadnought. However each individual ship or class of ship is investigated on a case-by-case basis. Because not only does the length of the spinal armament play a role, but also armor thickness, kinetic barrier strength, and the caliber as well as the number of guns used in the secondary battery all play a role in what qualifies a ship as it's particular size." Ujia replied.

Udina nodded in response. That made a considerable amount of sense, no two ship classes were the exact same.

"What does the UNSC define as a Dreadnought and a Super Dreadnought?" Holus asked.

Udina looked thoughtful for a moment. "The only Super Dreadnought that we have in our entire Navy would be the _Light of Sol_ , a recovered Forerunner Dreadnought that's twice the size of our largest ship class and packs enough firepower to utterly shred anything dumb enough to engage her. She's also the flagship of the Home Fleet and the pride of our Navy." he replied.

"What's the length of the spinal mass accelerator?" Ujia asked.

Udina laughed despite himself. "Sorry Councilor, that's classified Level Omega X-Ray." he replied.

"Level Omega X-Ray?" Tevos asked curiously.

"It's classified so far beyond "top secret" that you need long-range active sensor arrays of a warship to see it." Udina replied.

All three councilors blinked in surprise and their shoulders slumped imperceptibly. It was almost as if they were disappointed in that they couldn't learn more about the _Light of Sol_ , but honestly with the amount of security that the fleet had thrown up around the information about her. Just about the only things known to the public was literally her dimensions, some of the stuff she was equipped with, and what types of weaponry she was equipped with.

"Why is it that classified?" Ujia asked.

"I honestly got no idea why it's so classified, the decision came from the top of Office of Naval Intelligence Section 1 when we discovered her a good fifty years ago, of course it took about fifteen years to fully restore her." Udina replied.

"What about the largest warship ever built by human hands?" Tevos asked.

"You've ironically already faced one, the _Cole_ class Dreadnought, they're new. The information on those aren't as classified as the specs on _Light of Sol_ , but the most I can tell you is just general specifics. Four are currently in active commission, another one is in the final stages of it's shakedowns, and two more are being constructed and are estimated to be completed in roughly three years or so, give or take a little." Udina replied.

"That is a considerable amount of ships, are they replacing any predecessors?" Ujia asked.

Udina shook his head. "Technically they are supplementing the _Avenger_ class Heavy Battleships and _Enterprise_ class Supercarriers which are typically the flagship for an entire fleet. But we are currently in the process of replacing the older _Autumn_ class Heavy Cruisers with the newer _Maelstrom_ class Heavy Cruiser. The differences between the two are mostly in size, how heavily armed the ship is, armor composition, and the tech crammed in, under the Naval Treaty of Fraxin, our Heavy Cruisers would qualify but since they are also the backbone of our navy, following the treaty is frankly impossible. Since under the treaty our _Daring_ class Heavy Destroyers and our _Maelstrom_ and _Autumn_ class Cruisers would qualify as Dreadnoughts and Super-Dreadnoughts respectively." he said.

"So for you, following the Treaty of Fraxin is out of question. Just because in order for it to be followed, it would require the scrapping of so many ships. Plus the larger ships while they likely have spinal mass accelerators, their length likely is limited." Holus mused.

Tevos had remained silent for the most part, near as Udina could figure it was because she wasn't as knowledgeable in terms of military equipment. That made sense he supposed, not all politicians would be well versed on that sort of subject.

"Correct, the length is limited because the recoil of the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon is very substantial as among our weapons they are the most powerful weapons in our arsenal." Udina said.

It was true, but they likely wanted know to what degree. This was going to be somewhat interesting to watch, because the most powerful magnetic weapons within the arsenal of the UNSC was the Mark V series, commonly referred to as the Super Magnetic Accelerator Cannon or "The Big Stick". Also true was the amount of recoil which limited the length of the weapons, which had in several cases throughout the Human-Covenant War, upon firing had simply ripped heavily damaged ships apart due to how much recoil force there was thanks to Newton's Second Law of Motion.

To Udina's surprise however, it was Councilor Tevos who actually asked the question he was expecting. "So what sort of power does the most powerful model of magnetic accelerator cannon have?" she asked.

In lieu of Udina speaking, Doctor Hamon spoke up instead. "While the specifics for the newer models of the SMAC are classified, the ones from the Human-Covenant War however were capable of annihilating all but the largest and most powerful Covenant warships in a single shot, from beyond their range. But they required so much power that those models needed ground-based fusion generators in order to produce the power required, most of the worlds that had SMACs fell because the Covenant knocked out those generators." he said.

Holus made a sound that was apparently the equal to a Turian whistle. "Certainly sounds impressive. Regardless, knowing that each fleet is headed up by a ship that can likely fight an entire fleet by itself is more than a little worrying." he said.

Ujia had a different opinion. "Is it possible that we can see footage of these SMACs in action?" she asked.

Hamon nodded. "Sure." With that he pulled out a portable holoprojector and activated it. The device hummed to life as the young man tapped on his Omni-tool. "This footage and audio was captured in orbit of the Fortress World of Reach on August 30th, 2552 from zero-five-thirty to zero-five-forty-five hours and compiled into a composite image from the surviving ships of the Epsilon Eridani Defense Fleet" he said as the footage played, audio coming through hidden speakers.

" _ **It's confirmed, we got a**_ _ **major**_ _**repeat**_ _ **major**_ _**Covenant fleet heading in-system, estimates from RSO Fermion puts the enemy force in excess of five hundred warships. Identification coming in, enemy fleet predominantly composed of RPV-class Light Destroyers, CPV class Heavy Destroyers, and CCS class Battlecruisers, multiple capital ship silhouettes detected. Read twenty, repeat two-zero CAS class Assault Carriers, ten repeat one-zero ORS class Heavy Cruisers, six OSS class Dreadnoughts, six DDS class Fleet Carriers, two DRS class Heavy Carriers, and one DOS class Grand Cruiser." A firm voice stated.**_

" _ **Affirmative Trafalgar-Actual, alright people this is it! The day we have known that would be coming for so long has finally arrived and the Covenant have found our fortress among the stars, they wish to reduce it to rubble and glass. Our chances of winning is low but they shall pay for every cubic meter of vacuum that they advance in blood! All naval personnel report to your action stations this is**_ _ **not**_ _**a drill, I repeat this is**_ _ **not**_ _**a drill. Sloops, corvettes, and light frigates form up into your assigned harassment groups, heavy frigate squadrons form up into your assigned quick reaction forces, destroyer divisions report to your assigned screening positions around the capital ships, refit platforms**_ _ **Bassinet**_ _ **,**_ _ **Fountain**_ _ **, and**_ _ **Waterfall**_ _**standby to shield the allied formation from enemy fire on my mark, all ships that have them launch**_ _ **all**_ _**strike craft, and ODPs the**_ _ **instant**_ _**those bastards come into range fire at will, priority on the enemy capital ships." Another voice firm and confident replied.**_

 _ **The UNSC formation seemingly didn't care of the massive enemy fleet that was coming their way, they were outnumbered three-to-one by the enemy. With odds like that, it was mortifying for there was simply no way for the humans to win, Reach was doomed but they would be damned if they would go down without a fight. Orders and replies flying back forth as the UNSC ships formed up into their assigned formations as fighters, bombers, gunships, and heavy gunships got into their squadrons. The Covenant prowled in closer towards the planet, within the leading ranks massive Covenant armada was five Assault Carriers with a noticeably greebled look to them. Ahead of them was easily three or four full divisions of destroyers and battlecruisers.**_

 _ **The Orbital Defense Platforms rotated towards the Covenant fleet as they advanced. Space dust swirled around them, glowing a brilliant purple as extremely powerful magnetic fields were generated by the massive magnetic coils that the weapons had. "ODP**_ _ **New Baltimore**_ _**here, Trafalgar-Actual the enemy is in range, target is locked, we're commencing fire." A new voice, sounding much younger than the first two reported.**_

 _ **Then the ODPs fired like a ripples in a pond caused by a stone, each discharge unleashing an incredible amount of energy causing the sensors to spike from the sheer power. Slugs that were so hot they were glowing a brilliant white screamed away from the barrels in a red-shifting blur. Several Covenant destroyers were hit and the slugs blew threw shields and armor like paper causing the warships to shatter but the massive slugs weren't done, any ship that had the misfortune to be following the now shattered hulks had their shields blowout followed immediately by the hull crumpling and tearing itself to pieces. Twenty guns fired and thirty-two Covenant warships had died.**_

 _ **The next salvo came in literally twenty seconds later, this time the Assault Carriers and their escorts were targeted, the superior energy shielding and armor of the five kilometer long goliaths did nothing to protect them from the tremendous slugs going velocities that was quite frankly insane. One outright vanished completely in a blinding ancetic flash as it's reactor was annihilated, another three simply shattered into trillions of tiny pieces from direct hits, and the fifth got clipped thanks to maneuvering suddenly to avoid a wrecked CCS class that the first salvo had claimed and simply broke apart into at least a dozen large jagged pieces of varying length with so much energy have been dumped into them that they were partially molten as the shapes of the fragments began to change to a more spherical shape. The ships that had been on their flanks and moving to cover the Assault Carriers were now unrecognizable as having been a ship at one point.**_

 _ **The Covenant were down nearly fifty ships and they hadn't fired a shot yet in return, but that began to change strobes of purple light lanced out towards the UNSC fleet as the humans started launching long-range missiles and torp-**_

Hamon then paused the image as a UNSC harassment group led by the _Fletcher_ class light frigate UNSC _Hetzer_ began to engage the enemy's flank and the Covenant started launching a horde of strike craft. Shells, missiles, torpedoes, and other ordnance were frozen in mid-flight.

"Hold on, that image was composed from the _surviving_ ships? Are you telling us that you had _twenty_ of the most powerful orbital defense platforms in the galaxy defending the planet and Reach still fell?" Holus breathed stunned.

Hamon sighed. "It did, the Fleet of Particular Justice was the Covenant's lynchpin for taking Reach. Brutal actions throughout the system thanks to the Fleet of Holy Respite, Fleet of Righteous Vigilance, and Fleet of Valiant Prudence had taken the Epsilon Eridani Defense Fleet which was composed of six hundred warships at the start of the conflict down to a mere two hundred eighty seven and then despite having us on the backfoot the remains of those Covenant fleets suddenly and unexpectedly pulled out on August 29th. The arrival of the Fleet of Particular Justice which was composed of seven hundred fifty warships was just the final nail in the coffin. But between the remains of the defense fleet, the orbital guns and surface to orbit guns and missiles, as well as several nuclear minefields, the Fleet of Particular Justice lost just over five hundred warships but barely twenty of our warships managed to escape." he said.

"Spirits/By the goddess/Unbelievable." The three councilors said in shock, looking more than a little ill.

It took a moment for the Councilors to collect themselves after realizing just how badly humanity had lost at Reach, of how many had lost their lives in their attempt to defend the planet from the final Covenant attack.

"Still, this didn't answer my original question regarding the _Cole_ class." Holus said after recomposing himself.

Hamon snorted and fielded the answer. "With respect Councilor, when your opponents have ships that can do the exact same thing with relative ease. Even then at best a _Cole_ class Dreadnought would be hard-pressed against a Covenant Supercarrier, thus they would need supporting ships and while rare, the _CSO_ class supercarrier is rarely seen alone." he said.

" _CSO_ class?" Tevos asked confused.

"A monstrosity of a capital warship that's twenty-eight kilometers long, eleven kilometers wide, and three kilometers high with fifty meters of armor and the strongest energy shields you can imagine. Out of the twenty or so times that we encountered a _CSO_ class on the battlefield during the Human-Covenant War, we only destroyed two, although we did inadvertently blow up a third with a NOVA bomb, and we damaged another pretty severely. The first one fell at Skopje, but that's because the orbital grid got a clean shot, damn thing absorbed three ODP shots before the fourth shot broke it's shields and shattered a good third of the ship. The second one was destroyed over Reach by Operation: UPPERCUT, makeshift slipspace bomb took it out at a heavy cost. In the final stage of the operation, the timer got fried and it turned into a suicide mission because someone had to remain behind in order to set the thing off." Hamon replied.

All three Councilors grimaced, the thought of fighting something like that was terrifying. Particularly considering what they knew about Covenant warships, the shielding on something like that would be nearly impenetrable and the sheer thickness of it's armor meant that it could likely absorb ship-killing ordnance with ease. But the sheer size and power of humanity's _Cole_ class Dreadnought became understandable but it was also somewhat alarming.

"I really don't know how any of the human ships would be classified as under the Treaty of Fraxin, they are simply beyond anything we have in our arsenal and their dimensions don't help matters either." Ujia said looking thoughtful.

For the first time since she became Councilor for the Asari Republics some three hundred years ago, Tevos who was widely recognized as the de facto leader of the Citadel Council had no idea what to do next in regards to decision. Humanity as a whole were different from anything the Council had previously encountered, there was nothing that she had for a basis, _nothing_. She hated it, being stuck in the dark with no idea how to proceed. What could she do? Maybe make it clear that a unique case should be made with humanity regarding their dreadnoughts? That _might_ work.

But then again, she didn't know what to do. "It's impossible to agree on how the ships used by the UNSC fit within the Fraxin Naval Conference. Therefore, I am thinking a compromise is in order, if the UEG decides to join the Citadel that is should be put in place. Bear in mind, while this is to limit your military it's put the rest of us at ease because due to the nature of element zero it's extremely difficult to build ships of the scale you can without it, so it's to make things more fair for us militarily but to also make the public not freak out over how large a ship you can build." Tevos said, at the same time she thought _Goddess I hope this works._ "In that light, production on the _Avenger_ class Heavy Battleship will cease immediately and no further _Cole_ class Dreadnoughts will be laid down, production on any military ship class longer than three Terran kilometers will be cut back by at least thirty percent."

Udina legitimately had to think about that one, the offer was a good one. Unfortunately he wasn't sure if the UEG would jump at joining Citadel space, but that would have to be a notion to be run past the Congress of the UEG. From what he knew, Congress would likely reject any offer to join the Citadel.

Then again it _was_ Congress after all and was prone to moments of, well, being Congress. Not to mention he knew that the UEG Congress was actually closer to the Israeli Parliament of the 20th and 21st centuries. With lots of backroom dealings and such, the balance of power was constantly shifting between radically different messages. He honestly wouldn't be surprised if the thing somehow passed.

Regardless, he filed that information away for later. "We can discuss the particulars of such a deal later in time. But you have my attention, what would we get out of joining the Citadel?" he asked.

"Reduced tariffs on various goods made within Citadel space, more expansive mining and colonization rights, humanitarian and military aid if it is so needed, an expansive dock on the Presidium Ring for your military ships, and an embassy the Presidium Ring a scant five minutes away from the Citadel Tower. However that's just for starters, technology and cultural exchange is also a major benefit as well as becoming apart of the most powerful economy in the galaxy." Tevos replied.

 _That is a very tempting offer, I mean it's very tempting. Hell, she isn't wrong the Citadel's economy is easily the most powerful that I've ever seen and I have to admit, more expansive mining and colonization rights sounds very nice. An embassy sounds nice as well, setting those up can be troublesome at times._ Udina thought as he mulled this over.

"It's very tempting but we're going to have to draft something so that Congress can decide on the matter." Udina replied. "That is unfortunately beyond my control, so I don't know if it will pass."

"I see." Tevos replied.

"Also you mentioned technologies that are illegal in Citadel Space, I am curious as to what those are." Udina asked, curiosity in his voice.

"Extensive genetic augmentation and Artificial Intelligences also known as A.I.s are illegal in Citadel Space." Tevos replied.

 _Ah shit._ Udina thought, this just got way more complicated. It must have been visible on his face for one of the Councilors spoke up.

"Is something wrong Ambassador?" Ujia asked.

"Yes Councilors there is, the United Earth Government and by extension the United Nations Space Command use three different types of A.I, the first type is the 'Dumb' AI, the second type is the 'Smart' AI, and the last type is also the rarest it's called the 'Micro' AI. What's more we've been using AIs since the late 21st Century. As for augmentations, I think that needs to be reviewed on a unique case-by-case basis, experiments with the technology first started as surgical procedures, eventually moving on to chemical tech. Today however, augmentations are a combination of surgical, cybernetic, and genetic." Udina replied.

"Hold on, what's the difference between a 'Dumb', 'Smart', and 'Micro' AI?" Tevos asked.

 _Well that's actually fairly amusing, heh, I would be surprised as well upon finding out about multiple AI types and would want clarification on what they are._ Udina thought as he answered. "Technically speaking, the so-called 'Dumb' AI would be more like the Virtual Intelligences that are commonplace throughout Citadel Space, it's just a highly advanced computer program and they are usually highly specialized for just one specific task. A 'Smart' AI however is very different, they are created from scanning and replicating the neural pathways from a human brain, the process destroys the tissue in the process thus 'Smart' AIs are created from the brain of an organ donor and there are requirements too, although I don't really know the particulars of how that process is done just extreme barebones. Now during the Human-Covenant War, depending on the generation a 'Smart' AI belonged to, one would last for a period from seven to fifteen years or so, today though a 'Smart' AI can last about fifty years. The last one is incredibly rare, it's called the 'Micro' AI, they don't even the processing power of a 'Dumb' AI but they are much more portable than a regular AI which needs a big mainframe computer to run it. Due to how long they've been in our society, they are practically impossible to remove because of the ripple effect it would have."

"And you've never had a problem with AIs going rogue?" Ujia asked.

"Not particularly, with 'Smart' AIs that only happens once Rampancy begins and that only happens towards the very end of their lives but we got procedures to handle that, called Final Dispensation which is covered under Article 55 of UNSC Regulation 12-145-72 and similar regulations are in place regarding civilian 'Smart' AIs. Plus it outright impossible with a 'Dumb' or 'Micro' AI because they are just computer programs." Udina replied.

"And it's completely impossible for them to be removed due to how integrated they are with everything. Then again, given the size of your ships AIs are probably required to help run them." Holus mused.

Udina nodded. "They are, the crew requirements without them would be quite frankly uneconomical." he replied.

"I am curious as to the augmentations and the medical tech behind them as well as the technology behind the creation of 'Smart' AIs." Ujia said.

Udina nodded to Doctor Arima Erisa. "The floor is all yours doctor." he said and straightening her dress out, Arima stood up and began to explain the various intricacies.

The resulting conversation lasted long into the night.

* * *

 **END OF BOOK I: The Shanxi Affair**

* * *

 **AN: I have to admit, writing this chapter was undoubtedly the hardest that I've ever done since I was writing politics for the first time ever and I feel like ending this arc here because while I found the political aspect to be interesting, in all honesty I feel that writing another chapter this time covering a meeting of the UEG Congress discussing the fact that should the UEG join the Citadel would be just completely beyond my capability to write.**

 **So in light of this, the arc known as The Shanxi Affair is at its conclusion. This brings us to a Crossroads, how should the story proceed from here and I am going to ask your opinion. Does the story go on in a linear path, going into Shepard's backstory or do we jump right into the events of Mass Effect 1? A poll will be going up on my profile as soon as this chapter goes live and will be closing on January 20, 2019 at 1:00pm Eastern Standard Time.**

 **Also speaking of polls, the poll regarding the name of the Hero ship is now closed. I should've made an announcement somewhere that it would've been closing at the end of this arc, but alas nobody is perfect. In light of this screw up, I am going to be using the top two names in the story. Thank you to the one hundred three of you that voted. The winners of the poll are *opens envelope* UNSCN** _ **Avery Johnson**_ **and UNSCN** _ **Normandy**_ **.**


	14. Slavers over Mindoir

**AN: You guys amaze me, fifty-two people voted for the next arc of The Reclaimer Effect. The results were and I am not shitting you guys as follows:**

 **Shepard's Backstory: Twenty-two votes; 42%**

 **Mass Effect One: Twenty-two votes; 42%**

 **Unsure: Eight votes; 15%**

 **Seriously? Well in that regard I guess I'll serve as the tiebreaker, we'll be going with Shepard's Backstory.**

 **It should also be noted that there was a considerable amount of blowback from the last chapter. Like I said, I am new to politics and economics to the point that I dunno what I am doing. That said Udina actually told a considerable lie regarding the new Orbital Defense Platforms, they don't require ground-side generators in order to power their weaponry but they still use them...in order to power the energy shield generators that the ODPs are equipped with. The purpose of showing the video with the ODPs over Reach was also for intimidation factor, it should be noted that Covenant** _ **RPV**_ **class Light Destroyers could chew through Citadel Cruisers like a Great White Shark through Seals and the ODPs casually obliterated them in one-shot. It should also be noted as was mentioned during the discussion that the UNSC will partially follow the Fraxin Naval Conference, but they will be going by what the UNSC considers to be a Dreadnought not what the Council does.**

 **One last thing, I personally believe that it is possible for Mass Effect ships larger than frigates to actually operate in atmosphere, but doing so requires almost the entire output of the Mass Effect core to Mass Lightening, meaning that the ship has minimum output for other things that involve Mass Effect Fields, like kinetic barriers, artificial gravity, interia dampeners. Bottomline, it's possible to operate big ships in atmosphere but it's also extremely dumb because if the enemy has heavy AA guns or SAMs they can likely deal heavy damage. The only vessels that can get away with it are frigates since their mass is low enough that they can maintain kinetic barriers that are worthwhile.**

 **Let's get started, as the writer of The Reclaimer Effect Saga, I am proud to present:**

* * *

 **Book II: A Hero Rises**

 **Chapter I: Slavers over Mindoir**

* * *

 **1255 Hours, January 20th, 2667 (Military Calendar)**

 **Era of Realization, One-hundred fourteenth cycle**

 **Onboard the** _ **OAS**_ **class Super Assault Carrier,** _ **Shadow of Intent**_

The _Shadow of Intent_ had started life as a Kerel-Pattern _CAS_ class Assault Carrier, but the Blooding Years which had occurred almost immediately after the end of the Human-Covenant War and lasted until late 2558 on the human calendar, had seen the Swords of Sanghelios take considerable losses in capital ships. The ones that were particularly hit hard were both patterns _CAS_ class Assault Carrier and it's larger, more heavily armed, armored, and shielded cousin the _OAS_ class Super Assault Carrier.

In response to this harsh lack of dedicated Assault Carriers, the Arbiter Thel 'Vadam had ordered that all remaining _CAS_ class Assault Carriers get upgraded to _OAS_ class Super Assault Carrier standard. Which meant increasing the dimensions of the vessel from 5,347-meters long to 7,256-meters long, from 2,118-meters wide to 3,450-meters wide, and from 746-meters tall to 875-meters tall. The armor was increased from a 'mere' forty-meters of nanolaminate to fifty-meters and was further boosted by the integration of ten meters of runic plating. The size of the ship's reactors was increased by a factor of three with the integration of Forerunner reactors that used Vacuum Energy supplementing the Deuterium-Tritium Screw-Pinch Fusion Reactors giving the ship nearly limitless energy. The addition of more powerful energy shields as well as a massive increase to the ship's firepower meant that the energy was put to good use. Which combined with the increase in troop transport capability meant that an _OAS_ class incredibly lethal.

The _Shadow of Intent_ however was unique among the ships that the Swords of Sanghelios, which now served as the military arm for the Sangheili Empire, had at their disposal. Most of the ships in the naval arm had a distinctive crimson color with a splashing of purple and silver which formed intricate patterns on the hull. The _Shadow of Intent_ however maintained her original silver hull coloring, with gold and purple coloring, which indicated that she was the personal transport of the Arbiter. The mere sight of her instilled fear into the enemies of the Sangheili Empire.

Today however, the _Shadow of Intent_ wasn't on a combat mission. Instead the Chariot of the Arbiter was on a diplomatic mission to Thessia on order of the Sangheili High Council in order to discuss trade terms with the Asari Republics. The powerful slipspace drive pushing the massive warship through the realm of slipspace with a speed that could only be found in UNSC warships and thanks to improvements she was marginally better than those ships in terms of speed.

In one of the training rings though onboard the ship, the distinct crackling hiss of an Energy Sword being swung sang through the air. A moment later with a loud _crash_ , a training android modeled upon the human made Loki mech fell to the ground in four distinct halves.

Then whirling around with a speed and grace that seemed impossible for something that was two hundred thirty-eight-point-six centimeters tall and weighed one hundred forty-four kilograms when not in his armor and was somewhat taller and heavier when in his armor. The Arbiter Thel 'Vadam ducked and a blow from another training mech raced over his head, the air sizzling from the passage of the energy stave. Spinning around and swinging upwards, the blade cut through the advanced composites of the training mech with ease and effectively gutted the thing, the smell of fried electronics and burning electrostatic muscle fibers filled his nostrils. The internals that hadn't been eviscerated by the intense heat of the blade toppled out and the mech started collapsing.

The sound of exceptionally heavy footsteps like that of the training mechs he was using was coming up behind him. The Arbiter grabbed the collapsing mech and with a flex of his muscles he picked it up before spinning around and throwing the thing at the onrushing mech.

The sparring variant of the Loki mech weighed about as much as a fully equipped with UNSC Marine and Thel had just thrown a disemboweled one at about forty kilometers per hour. There was the distinct sound of composites crashing against composites as the wreck smashed into the operational mech and sent both to the ground in a mess of smashed composites, wrecked electronics, and torn electrostatic muscle fiber bundles.

The last two active mechs came at him, their energy staves crackling with power. One swung it's weapon in a powerful overhand attack and the other went low aiming to disembowel him. The Arbiter reacted with speed that seemed impossible for someone his age, he reached out with his free hand and grabbed the descending staff, stopping it's descent cold while with his blade he batted the strike that was aiming for his torso away.

Sensing that the highly adaptive VI that the mechs had were off-balance. He struck, lashing out with his hoof at the mech whose stave he held in his hand. It smashed into the robot and at the sametime he let go of the stave and the thing flew across the room, hitting the ground some seven and half meters away with a loud crash, the torso having caved in under the force of the blow. Just as his hoof hit the ground the second mech came at him again, having figured out a course of action. It swung the stave in a flat arc towards his midsection and the Arbiter parried the blow with his blade.

The mech recovered and lunged forward, the Arbiter sidestepped around the blow and counterattacked with blazing speed. The powerful slash was parried by the Loki mech before it swung it's stave in an overhead motion aiming to cleave his head in two.

The Arbiter caught the stave in between the twin blades of his sword and then violently twisted and sent the weapon flying out of the mech's hands. As the mech was in the process of trying to figure out what to do next, the Arbiter sliced the mech down the middle with his energy sword, Prophet's Bane. It's remains hit the ground with a loud crash.

On his HUD, the words **SET COMPLETE** came up. Nodding as his scores were displayed, Thel noticed that his reaction times weren't what he expected them to be. He would have to improve those, again. In his advanced age those always needed improving it seemed.

He was about to begin the next part of his daily training, which was some time practicing with his Carbine, a weapon that had served him well for over a century, when suddenly the intercom chimed and the voice of Grand Admiral Rtas 'Vadum came over the speakers. " _Arbiter, your presence is required in CIC._ " his tone sounded urgent.

"I am on my way." he said and he set his carbine back in it's proper slot in his personal weapon locker and left the training arena. He jogged swiftly through the maze of corridors that was _Shadow of Intent_ , as usual the corridors were busy, being crammed with Unggoy, fellow Sangheili, and even Megaloko. He took two separate lifts before arriving in CIC.

"What do we got?" he asked.

"Trouble, we just picked up a distress signal and we have verified that it's genuine." Rtas said before nodding to the comms officer who pressed a command and the distinct voice of a human came through the speakers.

" _Mayday, mayday, mayday! This is the independent human colony of Mindoir! We're under attack by raiders, we nee-_ " a loud explosion went off in the background blotting out some of the words. " _Oh god, they're just shooting_ everyone _, we need help!_ " more noise, this time gunfire resounded in the background. " _This is the colony of Mindoir, we're under attack and need -_ " another burst of gunfire and a pained scream followed by nothing.

"Any human warships in range?" The Arbiter asked after the recording ended.

"Nearest patrol should take no more than twenty-five minutes to respond." A sensor tech replied.

There were numerous decisions that as the Arbiter Thel was required to make since not only was he a warrior, but he was also a diplomat, scholar, and high priest. Yet he also knew of the bonds that the Sangheili had formed with humanity at the end of the False Crusade.

Rtas looked at the Arbiter and he nodded in response, his choice clear. "Change course, alert our escorts to do the same. We make for Mindoir, all hands to your combat stations, prepare for in-atmosphere slipspace transition. Upon transition to real space, 1st Legion will be deploying immediately." the admiral said and the normal lighting in CIC transitioned to dark purple combat lighting and an alarm howled it's urgent cry to arms.

The regular CO of the _Shadow of Intent_ , Shipmaster Thusha 'Harum, looked at the Arbiter. "What about your meeting on Thessia, Arbiter?" she asked.

Thel snorted. "Send a message to Thessia explaining that we will be a little late. A human colony is under attack by raiders and we're the closest ship."

"Understood." Thusha replied.

"Send a message to Mindoir, inform them that the _Shadow of Intent_ , in company with four _CPV_ class Heavy Destroyers is inbound, estimated time of arrival twenty human minutes." Rtas ordered as under his hooves, the _Shadow of Intent_ rumbled and shifted in the currents of slipspace. Her seemingly omnipresent honor guard of four _CPV_ class Heavy Destroyers the _Infinite Promise_ , _Rising Arc_ , _Proclamation's Tithe_ , and _Triumphant Spirit_ following in her wake.

"How many settlements are on Mindoir?" Thel asked.

One of the bridge officers sprang to his task and quickly came up with an answer. "Over a dozen, sir. But of those, there are three of note. The largest is New Davenport with a population of three-hundred-fifty-thousand and it's the capital of the colony, the next smallest is Nova Zuros with a population of seventy-five-thousand, finally is Glagan with a population of thirty-thousand."

"Display the positions of those cities on the main holoscreen." Rtas ordered and a moment later on the main holoscreen, a world appeared. A world of blues and greens, with white clouds visible, dots then materialized on the planet. Marking out the locations of the three main population centers. Rtas growled, the population centers were over a hundred kilometers apart from one another.

That could be slightly problematic or it would be if _Shadow of Intent_ was alone.

"The _Proclamation's Tithe_ will accompany the _Shadow of Intent_ to New Davenport. The _Infinite Promise_ and _Rising Arc_ is going to Nova Zuros, and _Triumphant Spirit_ your going to Glagan. Until proven otherwise, assume that any and all ships that are above those population centers are hostile." Rtas ordered.

* * *

 **1307 Hours, January 20th, 2667 (Military Calendar)**

 **Attican Traverse, Rose Petal Cluster, Angel Theta System, Angel IV, Planet Mindoir**

 **Tracking...located Franklin "Frank" Shepard**

"Come on Jenna!" Frank yelled as they ran.

"I am coming!" His little sister, Jenna replied sounding winded but still she kept on running. For if they stopped, they were most certainly dead.

Around them, the city of New Davenport burned, smalls arms crackled and roared, Varren howled, people screamed, artillery thumped, buildings crumbled, fires raged out of control, and in the skies a multitude of craft hovered sedately. Most of them were freighters but a few were frigates and destroyers, but the most shocking warship that was currently in the skies over his hometown was a massive monstrosity of what appeared to be _cruiser_.

 _We gotta get out of town, if we can get across the fields and into the trees, they'll never find us._ Frank thought, for the thousandth time he found himself checking the pistol his mother had given him, an M6A pistol. She had told him to protect his little sister, that had been the last time he had seen her, before he had witnessed several Batarians storming his home. Followed by gunfire and then silence.

Ahead of them an artillery shell impacted the main school building and detonated. The front of the building which was one of the first permanent structures in New Davenport simply came apart in an violent display of fire, smoke, dust, shattered concrete, and noise. With a gathering rush the rest of the structure began to collapse throwing up a massive cloud of debris and dust that raced towards them.

Frank spun, flipping the safety on the pistol he held and then tackled Jenna to the ground. The cloud roared over them and Frank was forced to grit his teeth as dust, dirt, as well as pieces of debris tore at him. In a matter of moments the worst of it was over and he stood up, in the process pulling her up to her feet.

"You alright?" he asked, trying (and likely failing) to keep the fear out of his voice.

She looked herself over for a couple of moments but then nodded. "I am fine." her tone of voice and how it was shaking told Frank that she wasn't fine. Truth be told, he was terrified but he had to be strong for his sister's sake.

"Come on, we got to get out of here." He said and she nodded in response, he brought the pistol up and was relieved to see that it still appeared to be in working condition. He flicked the safety off and motioned for his sister to follow him.

They moved up through the dust cloud, the visibility was less than stellar. Dirt, dust, and pieces of debris swirled within the cloud. He could just barely make out the burning remains of the school, the structure had been shattered by the round that had hit it.

Suddenly something else howled and Frank froze, his blood turning to ice. That _wasn't_ a varren, it was something that was much _worse_. Jenna started whimpering and grabbed onto his shoulder and buried her face into his back. Almost imperceptibly, the magnum in his hands began shaking and the weapon all of a sudden seems woefully inadequate.

 _I hope that isn't what I think it is._ Frank thought.

The thing howled again and Frank had his worst fears confirmed. "B-b-brutes." he breathed as in the distance the distinctive sound of Spikers firing sang.

"W-w-we're dead! God, we're dead!" Jenna whimpered as she began sobbing. A Brute or as they were now known officially, Jiralhanae, was to put it in simple terms, a nine-foot tall bipedal gorilla with a bad attitude and one hell of a sadistic streak. Didn't help that the fuckers were tough as hell and could overpower spartans in a wrestling match. Frank didn't like the odds if they encountered one.

"It sounded close, if we stick to the alleys we might be able to get away from it." he said but he wasn't entirely sure if they would be able to evade Brutes, they had a well developed sense of smell. Chances were, the thing had their scent.

Jenna nodded, her brown eyes were wide with terror. "Frank," she whispered, her voice nearly inaudible.

"Yes?" he replied.

"I don't wanna die." she said.

Frank turned and knelt down, his green eyes meeting her brown eyes. "As long as I have anything to say about it, that won't happen because of some thug, it will happen on your own terms." he said, but he knew in his heart that it was unlikely that he would be able to keep that promise.

"Promise?" she asked holding up her hand for a pinky swear.

"Promise" he replied taking it. This was a promise that he would do his damndest to not break.

The following twenty minutes were quite frankly chaos. Dodging groups of marauding Batarians but some of them had Brutes or Varren. Frank also came to the conclusion that he hated running and not doing anything to help defend his home.

Then everything went to hell, they rounded a corner and almost immediately saw a Batarian laugh as he gunned down one of Frank's close friends, Logan. Lying nearby in a pool of there own blood were Logan's parents and limp in the grip of a massive Brute was Logan's little sister Fatima, around her neck was a collar of some sort.

Before Frank even knew what he was doing, he snarled in anger and brought the M6A Magnum up and settled on the sights on the Brute's chest, then he pulled the trigger. It should be noted that the M6A Personal Defense Weapon System, like all members of the M6 series had a 5-inch barrel and it fired a 12.7x40mm caseless round, with the bullet seated firmly within the propellant, there was also more propellant per round. Which combined with the electric firing system which converted said propellant into a jet of hot gases and plasma almost instantly, it meant that the bullet had a tremendously high muzzle velocity, on the order of eight hundred meters per second.

The M6A went off like an artillery cannon and emitted a large pulse of flame and it kicked hard even with the recoil dampeners. The Brute that was holding Fatima was wearing simple armor for protection and the one thousand pound monster didn't have a kinetic barrier generator. The 600-grain full metal jacket bullet punched past the alien's chestplate like it wasn't their to begin with and Frank nearly whooped with glee as the alien began to fall. A shocked expression plastered on its face as it tried to figure out what had just happened to it.

The other three Batarians were wheeling around and beginning to bring their rifles to bear. The sights settled on the closest one and the hand cannon roared it's battlecry. The round glanced off the kinetic barriers, snarling Frank pulled the trigger again and this time the heavy bullet punched straight through them before impacting the armor square in a ceramic plate where it failed to penetrate, but the amount of kinetic energy that the massive slug had retained was still sufficient to put the pirate flat on his back.

Then Frank yelled but the sound muted so while he _knew_ what he had said, he hadn't heard it. However, Jenna got the gist and they both took off running. Hopefully the Batarians were going to tend to their wounded rather than come after them. That hope died when something zipped past his ear with a loud _crack_.

Jenna dove towards an alley and Frank followed, thankfully the thing was unoccupied and the two children raced up it's length and then upon reaching the end turned right. This street wasn't occupied and thus seeing their chance they ran.

Frank's muscles were burning from all the exertion that he was putting them through. His ears were still ringing from the three shots that he had fired from the M6A, he was fairly sure that his hearing was damaged. Damn thing was incredibly loud, it had been like putting his ear next to a running warthog engine.

Maybe that's why he didn't hear the dropship until it literally swooped over a line of houses maybe a mile away. On its flanks doors opened and a dozen Batarians along with four Brutes were deposited onto the ground.

"Oh shit!" Frank yelled, the tone muted. " _Run!_ "

They turned and went to go running back up the way they came but the dropship howled forward, screaming overhead and past them before swinging around and lowering itself to the point that it wasn't quite on the ground. But it was effectively blocking their only escape route, unless they wanted to run back through the alleys, but that would be impossible due to that damn gunship.

Frank turned to face down the oncoming slavers, his aim shaking he brought the pistol up. The weapon bucked and roared, the shot missed. The magnum spoke again and again, this time dropping a Batarian which started screaming in agony despite the bullet not penetrating the armor.

The magnum barked once more and the immense slug popped a Brute's head like a melon, then the slide locked back. Empty.

In anger, Frank threw the M6 Magnum at the closest Batarian once he got close with all his might, mainly because unlike so many pistols that used Mass Effect and thus were rather lightweight. The M6A Magnum, like all members of the M6 Series was bulky and rather heavy, weighing four pounds unloaded. It helped that Shepard was a farm hand and that even in the 27th Century, there were tasks that require old fashion muscle power. As a result this thing was going a respectable forty miles per hour as he put every ounce of muscle that he could behind the throw.

The pistol caught the Batarian, who wasn't wearing a full face helmet, square in the nose and produced a very satisfying _crack_ and dropped the four-eyed alien with a howl of pain. His rifle clattered to the ground and his hands went up to his nose in an attempt to try and stem the blood flow as he convulsed in pain.

A moment later a rifle butt buried itself in Shepard's stomach and he doubled over in pain before powerful hands grabbed him and forced him to the ground before his hands were tied with something, it felt like rope. One of the Batarians said something in a harsh guttural tongue that Frank didn't understand.

Jenna squeaked as she was yanked roughly upwards, followed closely by Frank. Then with harsh shoves were forced to march forwards. Not towards the gunship which suddenly took off and went somewhere else but still back towards the center of town. Back towards where the majority of the raider ships were.

They were guided through what seemed to be a maze, buildings were in flames and streets were choked thick with debris to point that some had become impassible. Regardless they were brought ever closer to those ships, one of them suddenly fired a broadside from its Mass Accelerators. Great thunderclaps rent the air and blinding streaks arced away from the ship that had fired at some unknown target, at least judging by Jenna's reaction that is what had happened. Frank's hearing had devolved almost to just a constant incessant buzz, but he had felt the rumble from the guns firing in his chest.

The rumble from the engines of the craft felt like it was making his insides go soft. They were immense, far bigger than any ship he had ever seen before. It was easily five hundred fifty meters in length with powerful engines, spearing down from it's belly the distinctive coloring of a gravity lift shone.

Then over three billion metric tons of air got violently displaced with a cataclysmic roar, that seemed like the very air and fabric of reality was being ripped asunder. Frank, Jenna, and the pirates spun towards the source of the noise. Just as the shockwave washed over them, tossing them onto their back. While the sound of buildings crumbling hit them as the winds howled.

After getting back on their feet, they got a good view of what had just entered realspace. Frank's jaw dropped, if it was physically possible it would've been on the street. An immense warship loomed over New Davenport, everything else over the small town, even the other ship that was accompanying it was dwarfed by the monstrosity. It's hull glittered in the afternoon sun, the sunlight making the hull seemingly sparkle. The colors however were instantly recognizable, they belonged to the Arbiter's personal squadron.

"T-th-th-that's the _Shadow of Intent_ , which means that the _CPV_ class Heavy Destroyers must be apart of her honor guard. B-b-but what is she doing here?" Jenna stammered shocked, Frank could barely make out the wording. He was fairly certain that the consecutive firing of the magnum had dealt significant damage to his hearing, along with the other things that had happened.

They didn't have to wait long to find out their answer. A blinding flash of Cyan energy, a roaring blast of heat streaked out from the _Shadow of Intent_ and cored into the hide of a freighter that was maybe eight kilometers off. Ablative armor while it was effective against pre-Shanxi Affair GUARDIAN Lasers, stood no chance against the thirty thousand terawatt pulse laser.

The ship quivered slightly, a molten ring punched into the ship's side. They came in rapid-succession, nine more roaring blasts screamed across the sky and impacted the raider. With it's lights flickering the ship's Mass Effect Field Generators lost power and the ship dropped like a rock and impacted with a godawful crunching crash that caused the ground to buck and shake as if an earthquake had struck, damaged buildings came apart and everyone who was standing that Frank could see fell to the ground while an immense plume of debris was thrown into the air from the impact.

More dazzling flashes of light and heat screamed across the sky, spearing freighters in well aimed disabling shots. Engines, thrusters, mass effect field generators, fuel tanks, they were targeted and engaged by the _Shadow of Intent_ with devastating effects, within moments dozens of ships were holed in multiple locations and burning. While from her massive primary hanger bay, a cloud seemingly disgorged itself from the massive warship's belly hanger.

From the documentaries that Frank had seen, he knew that cloud was composed of hundreds of craft. A mixture of dropships, gunships, ground attack aircraft, and air superiority aircraft. Hundreds of alien warriors clad in advanced energy-shielded, strength enhancing power armor that were armed with advanced energy weapons capable of blasting through most types of armor with little trouble and turning whoever was wearing that armor into charred meat.

One of the destroyers that the raiders had at their disposal fired a broadside of _Shadow of Intent_ , each shell had who knew how much destructive force behind them. The shots appeared to be blinding streaks that unleashed an unearthly howl before crashing against the energy shields of the immense vessel with an immense roar of an explosion that was like a considerably sized bomb going off.

The shockwave from the shells connecting sent Frank, Jenna, and the slavers tumbling for at least a dozen meters. Hellish purple fireballs screamed across the sky and smashing into the destroyer, barely non-existent kinetic barriers only stopped the first shot which splattered across the armor and started burning through it. The twelve other energy bolts that the _Intent_ had fired slammed directly into the armor and it flash boiled away, explosions blossomed through the ship's interior, the immense heat from the plasma impacts causing the atmosphere to spontaneously combust.

Frank wound up flat on his back, the last he saw of the raider destroyer, it's entire portside was an unrecognizable mess being mostly molten, flames encompassing the ship almost entirely from stem to stern, being completely out of control and losing altitude fast. The ship crash-landed in the harbor if the sound of the impact was anything to go by.

The roar of mass effect gunfire splits the air and begins dueling with the high-pitched whine of energy weapons in the background. The strange hissing explosions of fuel-rods and screech of plasma detonations join in, while the crumps of regular high-explosive meets them.

A new sound of thunder splits the air, Frank spins towards the source of the noise and looks up. The raider cruiser has ignited its main engines and is in the process of fleeing, climbing into the atmosphere on a towering column of smoke and flame. Then he's grabbed by his shoulder, he instinctively spins around and succeeds in breaking free of the grip, but comes face to waist with a Brute. The massive alien gorilla wastes no time, grabbing him by the neck and squeezing lightly, succeeding in cutting off the blood flow, blackness quickly swallows him.

Frank comes too sometime later and looks around, dozens of people are clustered together. His sister is holding his arm in a white knuckle grip with fear on her face. Above them a small freighter looms, it's gravity lift active and it's antigravity drive thrumming. In the distance, the _Shadow of Intent_ looms, it's sleek form giving off an air of menace. One of the ship's spinal energy projectors is hot as the extremely powerful weapon is glowing a predatory blue, it had that freighter dead to rights, why wasn't it firing?

A closer look to his immediate surroundings solves that problem, there are _at least_ thirty-five raiders surrounding what had to be at least five hundred people, himself and Jenna included. But what is most disconcerting is not the fact that at least fifteen of the raiders have their weapons trained on the crowd, no it's the fact that there is a pair of _plasma cannons_ that's trained on them as well. Those things would have no problem turning everyone in the crowd into cooked hamburger meat.

Then the Sangheili attacked with a level of speed, timing, skill, and ferocity that the documentaries on the Human-Covenant War hadn't even come close to succeeding in capturing.

Two simultaneous purple lances of energy reach out from windows of a nearby building and spear the plasma cannon gunners in the head which seemingly explode from the sheer energy of the beams, while at the sametime energy daggers and a uniquely colored energy sword ignite with hisses then move in blurs. The raiders who had their weapons trained on the crowd are just beginning to fall from fatal wounds and in one case, having been bisected, when the aliens reveal themselves. A shimmering film seemingly peels away revealing a significant number of Sangheili soldiers that are clad in nightmare black armor with full fitting helmets and plasma rifles. But one warrior is different, his armor isn't black and isn't primarily functional in appearance but is instead elegantly crafted. The armor being as much of a work of art as it is combat armor and it's glittering gold.

Pandemonium erupts, the raiders open fire in a blind panic at the Sangheili Special Operations soldiers and the Arbiter. But the alien operatives are already in motion, moving with a speed and agility that seemed to define belief, plasma and what could only be needle rifle and carbine shots criss-crossed the courtyard, dueling with the tracers of mass effect weaponry and the glowing rods and spikes of Brute weaponry.

Then the mass of civilians started screaming as one raider, a Batarian, stopped shooting at the Sangheili and opened fire with it's shotgun into crowd, another particle beam lashed out and silenced the shooter but something told Frank that there was a considerable number of casualties. The engines of the freighter engaged and the ship began to frantically accelerate as glittering green globs and blue blobs began detonating all around it, the kinetic shields popping. Then the with a blood-chilling howl, the Banshees pounced on the accelerating ship, firing plasma bolts and fuel rods with devastating effect as the ship quickly began trailing thick black smoke, it's engines sputtering as it tried to remain airborne. But it managed to get out of his sight and from the looks of it was going to escape; then the blow struck. A blinding lance of blue energy with a slight silver tint cast everything into sharp relief and the _roar_ of the weapon firing was immense, the atmosphere igniting as the near-particle beam screamed through the atmosphere. Several seconds later, the ground bucked and quivered as the ship impacted the ground, probably in pieces.

Then the plasma cannon opened fire, it was silenced almost immediately but the spike in temperature caused by the thing was recognizable that and the fact that he saw energy bolts ripping into the crowd with catastrophic, people getting seemingly blown apart by the immense power of the bolts. The smell of charred meat filled the air, mixing in with the small of ozone from all the energy weapons firing. Twin particle beams flashed and the weapon ceased firing, moments later something small and red zipped across the courtyard. The area where the plasma cannon had been positioned quite simply blew apart in a large plasma detonation and a wave of heat washed over him.

A brute roared loudly, it's simple armor was heavily damaged and glowing from multiple plasma impacts and it had been penetrated in several locations by carbines. But the weapon it wielded was what had effectively became the main rifle for the massive aliens during the closing years of the Human-Covenant War. It fired premade and sharpened metallic rods that had been formulated so they wouldn't stretch upon firing and they inflicted horrific wounds, the premade rods had led to one of its names: The Rod Gun. This particular one had slung between the twin bayonets was a launcher.

The launcher fired and a grenade sailed towards the crowd, while at the sametime a particle beam removed the Brute's head in a small but violent explosion as the fluids within flash boiled from the heat of the beam. A moment later the grenade exploded, shrapnel spayed everywhere and something slashed across the side of his head.

Jenna started shaking him and he looked at her. To his shock, she was very pale and looked like she was trying to stay awake. She gestured to something on her, to his surprise and horror something had torn through her torso, there was a hole the size of his fist. Blood was flowing out of it in copious amounts.

Another immense roar shook the city and Frank glanced upwards, a UNSC warship now loomed over the city like a guardian. Tiny dots were launching from it's immense form, most likely Pelicans. He tried and put pressure on the wound, but it was hopeless, the wound was simply too massive for him to effectively stop the bleeding.

* * *

 **1545 Hours, January 20th, 2667 (Military Calendar)**

 **Onboard the UNSCN** _ **Tachi**_ **DD(L)-485, in orbit of Mindoir**

The interior of the _Jacob Keyes_ class Light Destroyer, Thel noted had a minorly organic feel to it that made it aesthetically pleasing while barely making any sacrifices for raw strength. That still didn't make the enormity of what had happened any less impactful.

Batarian and Jiralhanae raiders had struck nearly a dozen systems in the Rose Petal cluster, most of the colonies here were actually protectorates and thus stuff like orbital defense was the colony's job, unless they were willing to support a UNSC defense group. Although most of them had UNSC ground forces, it was typically rather light.

Still, the patrol groups had been stretched thin trying to respond to all of the distress calls from all the individual colonies.

Reaching his destination, Thel knocked twice as the closed hatch. "Come" the _Tachi_ 's Shipmaster said.

"Coming in." Thel rumbled as he turned the wheel and unlocked the hatch before pushing it open and stepping inside, being mindful of his height. He closed the hatchway behind him which shut with a loud clang.

The _Tachi_ 's Shipmaster, Captain Thel reminded himself, was a man in his mid-fifties with greying hair and eyes that were as unforgiving as a shark's. "Arbiter, it's a pleasure to meet you." Captain Attiq Khatibi greeted as he stood up, offering a hand.

"The pleasure is mine, but I will admit I wish it was under better circumstances." Thel said taking the offered hand. He noted that Captain Attiq looked exhausted. His patrol group alone had been all over the cluster engaging raiders.

"So do I, take a seat." Attiq offered.

Thel shook his head. "Probably won't support my weight." he said after looking at it.

Attiq nodded. "I understand, I have to say though, thank you for helping out over Mindoir. It most certainly could've been alot worse here if you hadn't intervened."

"When we picked up the distress signal we had no idea that there were other raider attacks occurring. But I ordered us to divert course, just in-case you wouldn't be able to respond in a timely manner." Thel replied.

Attiq shook his head. "Thank God for small miracles. Doesn't blunt the enormity of this however, we're looking at nearly forty thousand civilians dead, about three times that number injured, and about three hundred thousand missing, but those numbers are expected to climb as time goes on." he said and Thel nodded sagely in response.

"So what's our course of action now? Most of the raiders we have captured were Batarians." Thel asked. "It does seem more than a little suspicious that most of the raiders were in fact Batarians, normally you would expect a pirate group to be composed of more than just ninety percent Batarians and ten percent Jiralhanae." he rumbled.

"The Batarian Hegemony have been throwing a fit about us colonizing the Skyllian Verge for years, the Rose Petal Cluster is one of the closest clusters to the Batarian border in the Verge as well and the Batarians did call it an outrage since we aren't technically apart of the Citadel when the Citadel Council voted in our favor over them when it came to that subject matter." Attiq said rubbing his chin.

"Plus given all of the sanctions that the Citadel have slapped the Batarians with, granting the UEG the ability to colonize the Skyllian Verge was most likely another maneuver by the Council to limit the power of the Batarians." Thel said nodding as he connected the dots.

"So what's our next step?" Attiq asked.

Thel gave the Sangheili equal of a grin with his mandibles. "Rtas let the lead Cruiser escape, but not before he planted a tracking beacon on it. Once it reaches its final destination, it will send a signal to the _Shadow of Intent_ 's QEC, revealing where that dishonorable wretch has fled too." he said.

"Then what?" Attiq wondered, but he had a feeling that he already knew the answer.

" _Shadow of Intent_ performs a rescue mission, we managed to get a bioscan off on that fleeing ship and it's cargo holds were packed with _people_." Thel growled, there was an unusually high amount of anger and heat in his tone of voice.

Attiq snapped bolt upright in his chair. "Bloody Elisa!" he swore. "This was a fucking slave raid, that's in violation of multiple Citadel, UEG, Sangheili Empire, and Dosaic Kingdom laws. I don't care if this causes a political shitstorm, damn if it weren't for the fact that I would be court-martialed to hell and back, I would gladly have my patrol group join up." he snapped.

Thel nodded. "I felt much the same way, Rtas is furious to say the least. The last time I saw him this furious was after the Brutes betrayed us back during the False Crusade." he said.

Attiq paled. "May God have mercy on the Batarians, because I doubt that Rtas will. Honestly I doubt that the Batarians have anything that can legitimately threaten something like _Shadow of Intent_ , even using disruptor torpedoes on her would be damn near suicidal because of how close you have to get to have a reasonable chance of getting through the point-defenses." he whispered.

Thel nodded. "Indeed, I would have talked him down, except I am fairly certain that I would have done the same thing."

"Right, so I take it that you'll be leaving immediately upon receiving the intel?" Attiq asked.

"Indeed." Thel said.

"Just do us a favor?" Attiq asked.

"What?" Thel replied, sounding actually a little curious.

"Don't traumatize the Batarians too much." Attiq said, tales passed down through word of mouth told how terrifying an attack by a _CAS_ class Assault Carrier or _OAS_ class Super Assault Carrier could be.

Thel chuckled darkly. "We'll try our best not too, but no promises." he replied.

* * *

 **1730 Hours, January 20th, 2667 (Military Calendar)**

 **Attican Traverse, Rose Petal Cluster, Angel Theta System, onboard UNSCN** _ **Tachi**_

 **Tracking….located Franklin "Frank" Shepard**

The medical bay onboard the _Jacob Keyes_ class Light Destroyer UNSCN _Tachi_ was aesthetically pleasing. But there was also the sterile stench that seemed to inhabit all hospitals and clinics. As well as the soft beeps of the various machines that were doing whatever they were supposed to be doing.

Franklin for his part was grateful for the fact that the Sangheili had stopped the raiders cold but he was also filled with sadness. He was also grateful because he was scheduled to undergo corrective surgery to repair the damage to his hearing that had occurred due to him doing the rather idiotic thing of shooting that Magnum without hearing protection which combined with the other events that had occurred had thoroughly wrecked his hearing. But then there was the other side of the coin that dominated him, the sadness, grief, and guilt.

His little sister Jenna was teetering on the knife-edge of life and death. She had been hit by a Brute rod gun during the chaos of that final action, it had punched through several other people before it had hit her. After everything he had done for several hours, he had failed to keep her safe.

The doctors weren't entirely sure if she would pull through but they had done nearly everything they could to minimize her pain and to hopefully get her on the road to recovery. But the fact that he had failed, changed all of that, he hadn't kept his sister safe.

He just hoped that he could apologize to her for what was understandably his fault.


	15. Night of the Sangheili

**AN:** **I have to admit I feel like I am hitting my stride again. I will admit though that it was brought up that I may have screwed up in the numbers for the mass effect guns. It should be noted though, that grain of sand is a pretty broad term, and depending on the system that you use, the size of a grain of sand varies.**

 **Also, I'll be making another recton, the Charon Relay is in it's canon location but the Prothean Outpost was located on the planet Arcadia. It's a known fact that Arcadia wasn't heavily explored and thus it stands to reason that any Prothean Outpost located there could hide for long periods of time. Naturally this means that I got to change a lot of wordage but I'll get that done, so I'll probably go back and make the changes to the previous chapter that are required during the break between arcs.**

 **That said, it's good to know that I don't need work in writing feels…**

 **Now onto the show!**

 **SYSTEM ALERT: New Codex Entry available**

 **SYSTEM ALERT: New Codex Entry available**

* * *

 **2200 Hours, January 20th, 2667 (Military Calendar)**

 **Era of Realization, One-hundred fourteenth Cycle**

 **Attican Traverse, Rose Petal Cluster, Angel Theta System, onboard UNSCN** _ **Tachi**_

 **Following Taza 'Tengam**

The attack on Mindoir had been catastrophic, thousands dead, with even more injured or missing. For Spec Ops Minor Taza 'Tengam, of the 23rd Special Operations Cohort assigned to the 1st Legion in service of the Swords of Sanghelios, was positively boiling with anger. Mostly because of how indiscriminate the raiders had been, they didn't care who they slaughtered: adults, younglings, and childlings. It hadn't mattered, if they fought back they had been shot and some had been shot for fun.

Still, the Sangheili cut an imposing figure, standing some 245-centimeters and weighing 150-kilograms when he wasn't in his armor. Suffice to say, when he _was_ in his armor, he weighed significantly more and was several centimeters taller. The armor he was wearing was based upon the Storm Harness that rose to prominence during the Blooding Years but also integrated elements of Infiltrator Combat Harness that the Sangheili had used during the False Crusade.

Most of the human sailors were giving the Sangheili a wide-berth. Taza for his part didn't really care, all he was looking for was a shooting range. The Arbiter had ordered that two Sangheili Cohorts would remain at Mindoir to help the UNSC with tracking down and capturing or eliminating any raider stragglers while the _Shadow of Intent_ , her honor guard, and the rest of the ground forces were to sally forth the moment that they got the intel that led them to the bolt hole that the raiders had fled too.

The sounds of wounded and the subtle beeps of medical instruments reached his ears thanks to the audio pickups in his helmet. Taza sighed, a lot had changed over the years after the False Crusade, doctors while still not the most respected of positions within the Sangheili Empire were more common and battlefield first aid had advanced significantly. But they still paled compared to human technology and expertise on those matters.

Regardless, the sounds of people in distress, particularly those who had been attacked by enemies with no sense of honor was disheartening to say the least. The Batarian Hegemony was supposed to actively take steps to _prevent_ events like this from happening, yet most of the equipment that the raiders had used had been manufactured _by_ Batarian State Arms. Which had pointed to the raid having been _supported_ in some way by the Hegemony.

Taza already knew that when the UEG was going to accuse the Hegemony tomorrow morning that they were going deny the allegations. As he approached the medical bay, he saw a member of the medical staff step out of the compartment. Between his lips was an unlit Sweet William Cigar, the man looked up and spotted the Sangheili.

"Operative." he said in greeting, the term 'Operative' was one that he didn't really understand. But he knew that it was a title that humans have for special forces soldiers, one that demanded respect.

"Doctor." Taza replied.

"What brings you to this part of the _Tachi_?" he asked.

Taza for his part grunted, he thought back to the youngling that he had personally carried aboard the _Tachi_. He had made the decision to carry that youngling to a medical Pelican the moment it had landed, he hadn't been the only one to do so, but needed to know. "I have to ask, how's the youngling that I carried aboard the _Tachi_?" he asked.

The doctor looked thoughtful for a moment before making the connection. "The youngling in question is named Jenna Shepard. I have to say right now, it's very touch and go for her right now. During the initial emergency surgery we performed in order to stabilize her, she died twice on the table but both times we managed to get her heart going again. Honestly, it's her older brother, Franklin Shepard, that I am worried about. He's taking it particularly bad since his mother told him to keep her safe and he feels that he failed in that regard, but that's not the worst part though." he said.

That got Taza's attention. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"The raid utterly destroyed the Shepards, the family is practically gone. Their immediate family and their relatives were all killed, to make matters worse no one was named to be their god-parents." the doctor replied.

"I see, so what will become of them then?" Taza asked.

"Most likely they will be sent to an orphanage, probably one in the core worlds. After that, I have no idea what will become of them. They might be adopted they might not, for all I know they could spend the rest of their time as pre-teens and teenagers in an orphanage." The doctor replied.

Taza thought back to his family's Keep on Sanghelios, Tengam Keep which was a client Keep to Vadam Keep. Some of the best years of his life had been spent at the ancestral home of his clan. His favorite past time at the Keep besides sharpening his skills in the arena had been sailing on the Csurdon Sea. He would have to clear it with the Keep Elder, but he might be able to secure a future that would promise stability for the two of them.

"Still, I have to ask, what are Jenna's chances for survival?" Taza asked.

The doctor shrugged. "If she can make it through the first week, then she'll likely pull through, but we'll be looking at major rehabilitation. The rod that passed through her torso had lost a considerable amount of its velocity but not enough for it tumble thank god, but the heat of the thing did major damage as it passed through her abdomen and the thing was deformed all to hell and was beginning to fragment. But that heat also did us a favor by cauterizing the majority of the wound, probably the only reason why she didn't bleed out in seconds after getting hit." he said.

"I see, thanks." Taza replied and with that he bid farewell. That conversation had been enlightening, still he figured that at the very least he should tell the wife of the Keep Elder since she was responsible for familial and bloodline matters. Many because he felt that they needed a family to help them through the troubling times that lay ahead.

He began to head back toward his original destination, the firing range when his comm buzzed and the distinctive voice of his commanding officer, Spec Ops Ultra Xosa 'Vahomai growled into his ears. "Files Alpha and Bravo prepare for deployment." he said simply.

Unseen by anyone, under his helmet, Taza had the Sangheili equal to a grin. Finally he could let out some of the stress and anger he was feeling in the aftermath of the slave raid that had ravaged the planet of Mindoir.

He arrived at the launch bay several minutes later. The assembly area that had been set aside for the Sangheili to use aboard the _Tachi_ was easy to find, he simply had to find the Phantoms. Each File was composed of four Sangheili Lances and there was no Unggoy anymore in the Special Operations Forces, but that had been offset by the introduction of the Goblin which significantly increased the protection and firepower that Unggoy could have at their disposal.

Taza noted that he was one of the first to arrive. Techs were scrambling over the Phantoms, doing system checks and fueling the craft. Nearby was a single Hala, a variant of the Lich were being prepared for combat, along with two full squadrons of Wraiths and two full squadrons of Samcas, each composed of six vehicles. On the opposite side of the hanger, one of the two Osprey Dropships that the _Tachi_ had in her compliment was being prepped along with a number of Pelicans.

There was the distinctive whine of a turbine engine and the clatter of tracks on titanium. Taza turned and his mandibles split open in shock as he spotted the five meter wide monstrosity, the sloped frontal plate, combined with the boxy turret with a massive gun tube and multiple machine guns. He had heard of these massive warmachines but had never seen one until now, the monstrous tank could only be a UNSC M850A3 Grizzly III Heavy Battle Tank, it's predecessors the Grizzly I and Grizzly II had made their reputations for being able to bring massive amounts of firepower to the battlefield while also being incredibly tough to kill during the Human-Covenant War. The Grizzly III HBT continued that trend, he had heard that these things could even shrug off direct hits from light anti-tank particle cannons.

And it wasn't alone, behind it came another Grizzly III followed by _two more_ of the juggernauts. The massive machines made a beeline for the Osprey and crawled into its hold, their suspensions barely making any noise. Following behind the immense Heavy Battle Tanks came a squadron of Warthogs, most of them were equipped with the normal LAAG but a few were equipped with Gauss Cannons or Missile Launchers, the LRVs headed for the Pelicans.

It was around this time that most of Alpha File had arrived. Seeing this, Ultra 'Vahomai grunted and called the briefing to order. "Alright, let's get this briefing started. An hour and a half ago, a UNSC Army squad that's apart of Mindoir planetary defense forces was investigating the downed freighter at grid square two-niner-K. They were engaged by surviving raiders with vehicle support, they managed to evacuate but took heavy losses doing it. The _Tachi_ is deploying what's left of her organic battalion along with us as well, the battle plan is as follows. The UNSC Marines along with our combined armored forces are going to hit the enemy positions head-on, forcing them to fully commit to the defense. Once they do, we get inserted in our stealth Phantoms behind there lines and we locate the holding pens and execute the guards before freeing the civilians. Once the evacuation is complete, our forces will advance and overrun the enemy positions. Any questions?"

"I have one" Taza said.

'Vahomai nodded towards him. "Go ahead minor." he said.

"What sort of fire support will be on hand? The _Tachi_ 's organic battalion doesn't have much left in terms of artillery and neither does Mindoir's planetary defense force, apart from mortars." Taza asked.

"Half a squadron of Wraiths will be assigned to provide us fire support." 'Vohamai replied, although his tone of voice indicated that he thought that half a squadron of Wraiths was overkill.

"What's the estimated enemy strength?" Imperial Cula 'Datan, 3rd Lance Leader asked.

"Current estimates for our AO is at least fifty raiders with probable light vehicle support. For the whole battle area, the current estimate is that there is at least three hundred raiders with vehicle support, possibly minor artillery support. No gunships however, but just to be safe the UNSC is deploying a pair of Uller SPAAGs." 'Vohamai said in response, it wasn't the worst odds that Taza had heard of, but it wasn't the best either.

Then again, that is what the Sangheili Special Operations Cohorts were meant to do, handle missions where overwhelming odds and chances of survival were low. Taza wasn't sure why a Ranger detachment hadn't been assigned instead of the 23rd Spec Ops Cohort. Then again, the Special Operations branch was the only branch in the Swords of Sanghelios to actually have active camouflage generators, so maybe that was why.

"Any other questions?" 'Vohamai asked.

"I have one, why are we bringing six Wraiths or for that matter, six Samacas? It seems overkill for this mission, particularly considering who we are fighting. That level of firepower against pirates seems a little excessive." Taza asked.

'Vohamai snorted in response. "I thought it was overkill as well, until the mission commanders revealed that we will be sending a statement to raiders, pirates, and slavers that any action they take against UEG colonies or the colonies of her allies will be met with overwhelming force and no quarter." he said with evident disgust. Such orders would dredge up many memories from the False Crusade.

But it would also serve to send a very effective message about what raiders and slavers could expect to face in terms of resistance and retaliation from not only the Sangheili Empire but also the United Nations Space Command. Hit the enemy with excessive overwhelming force and show very little if any mercy.

"I see and I take it that when Grand Admiral 'Vadum finds where the pirates that escaped fled too that he's going to show little mercy as well?" Another Minor asked.

'Vohamai nodded. "That's what I have been able to ascertain. It's extremely unlikely that the slavers and pirates who undertook this dastardly attack have anything that can remotely threaten the _Shadow of Intent_. Plus even if they do, Grand Admiral 'Vadum knows how to fight his ship effectively against even opponents who use Mass Effect." he replied.

With that last portion of information cleared up, the Sangheili that composed File Alpha boarded their Phantoms. Each one of the craft carried a twin heavy-plasma cannon and enough space for two Lances. Taza being in the third Lance thus climbed onboard the second Phantom Dropship.

He then went over his equipment: one Plasma Rifle with underslung plasma shotgun, a plasma submachine gun, two gauntlet mounted energy daggers, a full bandilor of plasma grenades and gravity grenades, replacement energy cells for his weapons, and an active camouflage generator.

The plasma rifle in question was actually a development of the Storm Rifle, improvements to the cooling system allowed for longer periods of firing, along with other small improvements. The weapon was no longer a short to medium range plasma hose but a lethal instrument of destruction that was effective at most combat plasma weapons.

The plasma submachine gun however operated in the same vein as the SMGs used by the humans during the False Crusade. They were short-ranged plasma hoses meant to turn anything within one hundred meters into well-done hamburger meat.

The Phantom came to life, it's plasma turbines powering up. Through the doors which had now sealed, he could hear the whine of the UNSC dropships powering up as well. He got himself secured and then less than two minutes later the dropship lifted off the deck and raced out into the nighttime sky. The dropship's active camouflage engaged and the craft disappeared from view as a transparent film seemingly applied itself, four other Phantoms doing the same thing, vanishing like the ghosts they were named after.

The soft thrum of the engines was all that permeated the interior of the dropships, not even a whisper from the wind was audible in the passenger compartment. Gliding through the air with a seemingly supernatural grace.

After a mere fifteen minutes, they started their descent. The thrum of the plasma turbines was changing and the "standby" light flashed on.

" _Red light standby._ " Imperial 'Datan said as he performed a final equipment check before announcing. " _3-1_ _ready_ "

Taza unslung his rifle and checked it over once again, satisfied he flicked the safety off. The weapon thrummed with power as energy flowed from the plasma cell and into the plasma coil, energizing the weapon. "3-3 ready." he said, flashing his status light.

" _Affirmative_." Datan replied.

" _3-4 ready_ " Minor Sero 'Vratan said as he pulsed his light green.

And so it went until finally Minor Teme 'Kolcam sounded off with "3-10 ready"

" _Thirty seconds till LZ!_ "

The low thrum of rifles that had been recently activated had died away to nothing. Then the twenty figures inside the dropship engaged their active camouflage and vanished from sight. Precisely ten seconds later, the passenger compartment doors opened and the lights went green.

Twenty figures left the invisible dropship with barely any audible sound. Mere moments after the last figure was out, the Phantoms flitted away and the full File of Spec Ops Sangheili moved out, moving like ghosts in terms of visibility and tigers in terms of lethality.

In the distance, the sharp _crack_ of Mass Effect gunfire began to duel with the heavy bellow of UNSC machine guns, the high-pitched whine of plasma weapons, and the scream of Gauss cannons; both human and alien. Then a new sound joined the fray of combat, the titanic thundering _roar_ of a Type-85 Wraith's Plasma Mortar discharging.

* * *

 **2218 Hours, January 20th, 2667 (Military Calendar)**

 **Attican Traverse, Rose Petal Cluster, Angel Theta System, Angel IV, Planet Mindoir**

Bits of metal that were roughly the size of a grain of sand flew from the muzzle of Dhesvan Dormabar's Batarian State Arms made Assault Rifle. The dazzling blue streaks screamed into the night as the weapon roared defiance as the weapon kicked against his shoulder.

On his HUD, there we numerous red outlined figures as they carefully advanced from a treeline to what little cover was available on the intervening plain. Their weapons bellowing as they unleashed hot plasma and sun-yellow tracers, the range was still a little long for the plasma rifles. But it didn't mean that those weapons were ineffective...the Jiralhanae next to him screamed as a burst of diffused plasma bolts splashed across his armor. The protective ceramics and composites flash ablated away while the flesh underneath effectively cooked.

The smell of burnt flesh and burning hair filled Dhesvan's nostrils and he gagged. He had seen and done lot of horrible things as a slaver, but the smell of burning flesh and hair always unsettled him. He reached up and pulled down something, the breather mask clicked into place and a steady stream of clean air reached him.

He pulled the trigger again, the rifle kicked and roared it's fury. A blizzard of bullets each absolutely tiny compared to those fired by solid slug weapons screamed downrange. The kinetic barriers of his target flared as it deflected the rounds with ease.

Retaliation came in, bursts of plasma and bullets streaked forth across the plains in front of him. The brightness of the energy bolts seemed to burn through the night, illuminating everything harshly and causing his visor to polarize. A highly diffused plasma bolt smashed into his kinetic barrier dropping them almost by half, the heat causing some of the layers in the advanced composite that made up the chestplate of his armor to ablate away while blazing heat penetrated his armor and seared his chest. The concussive force from the impact knocked him back, sending him staggering away from the barricade.

Snarling he got back to his position and jammed down on the trigger. The rifle roared and spat roughly ten rounds before it clicked. Snarling, Dhesvan cycled weapon and a hissing thermal clip ejected, a new one from a stack of three in the rifle automatically slotting into place. The counter on his HUD resetting from 00 to 40.

 _Breathe in and breathe out, you've been in worse situations than this before._ Dhesvan told himself before he opened fire again in short-controlled bursts. Shards of metal shrieking downrange, the fellows around him were doing the same, the clatter of mass effect firearms filling the air.

The Brute that had been hit earlier returned to the barricade, it's massive rod gun opened fire. The sound it created unnerved him, the harsh _thump thump thump_ that the weapon produced was so deep that with each shot fired he felt it in his chest.

"Backblast area clear!" Someone shouted to his right and then with an unholy shriek a rocket screamed downrange.

Dhesvan watched as the rocket landed and despite himself, he grinned as he saw at least one mangled body get thrown by the frag warhead. Plasma bolts streaked over his head and he ducked instinctively before popping back up and firing again. He glanced at the ammunition counter on his HUD, it was dropping steadily, just a few more seconds and then the clip would be expended.

A burst of plasma hit the Batarian directly to his left, the man's kinetic barriers stopped the first two but collapsed immediately afterward allowing the third bolt of lethal energy to practically eviscerate the man's chest. He dropped without a sound, steam rising from the wound along with the sizzle of blood having been nearly boiled.

The deafening _crack_ of a sniper rifle firing echoes through the night and one of the red-outlined figures on Dhesvan's HUD collapses.

"Enemy tank cresting the ridge!" someone yelled.

Dhesvan whipped around toward the voice and quickly spotted the thing. A hulking beetle like vehicle that was hovering maybe a half meter above the ground crested the rise maybe five kilometers away, the thing's main weapon was glowing a dazzling blue-white. Immediately a sizeable portion of Dhesvan's fellows shifted their fire towards the behemoth whose energy shields _barely_ flicker into existence as the metal shards impact it.

"Wraith!" Dhesvan screams as he recognized the outline of the enemy tank. It was a monster designed to butcher infantry and fortifications. That plasma mortar would tear this defensive line apart with ease. Two more of the monsters crested that small rise, their energy mortars hot and ready to fire.

Immediately a rocket flew down range at the lead Sangheili Empire Mortar Tank and detonated harmlessly against it shields. A moment later one of the few strike tanks that they had managed to save from the site of their disastrous raid opened-fire, it's dual 63mm guns chugging out shots, a constant rapid-fire _choonk choonk choonk_ noise that hammers Dhesvan's ears as the harsh yellow shells streak down range.

The gunner literally walks the shells up right to the led Wraith, bodies from the infantry who had apparently been screening the tank are thrown in all directions in varying states of dismemberment. The Wraith's shields erupt in glittering blue-white will o'wisps of energy completely encasing the vehicle and stopping the rounds cold as they impact. Suddenly the shields failed with a brief electric spark and shells began sparking off the armor.

A moment later with a terrifying roar as the three plasma mortars discharged, with each weapon unleashing a lethal blue-white comet of energy. They rapidly swelled from their initial size to over a meter in diameter and gave off this ghostly wail as the shots sailed through the night sky. Blazing brighter than the sun the shots came in, Dhesvan's visor went to full polarization as the comet closed in, he could feel the heat physically climbing.

"Hit the deck!" he roared before diving to the ground.

He counted to himself as the shot got closer and closer. He managed to get to seven before the three shots impacted and all hell broke loose around him. The plasma bombs from the 46cm Plasma Mortars each detonated with the force equal to several tons of explosives in a blinding blue-white flash and a cataclysmic roar. The blast wave picked him up and tossed him several meters, sending him bouncing across the ground the alarms for his kinetic barriers having been dropped screaming at him while the vague cracks of bones breaking reached his ears. Men were howling in pain as the general area turned into an oven.

Slowly, his chest and back aching, ears ringing, vision filled with stars and rapidly clearing blotches from blinding flash of the round detonating. He painfully stood up, one thing he noted immediately was that his rifle was missing as was his pistol. In fact, his kinetic barriers were refusing to recharge as well. Frowning he attempted to activate his omni-tool and it too failed to start up. He flexed his aching limbs and found that the armor strength augmentation of the armor appeared to still work.

His vision cleared up just in time to catch a blazing white streak core a strike tank, the thirty-four ton vehicle simply transformed into thousands of flaming pieces of debris that were flung in all directions. An immense thunderclap washed over him as the sonic boom from the round hit and briefly he thought he heard the sound of a weapon discharge.

He looked down and saw a rifle, he scooped it up and frowned as his armor recognized it. The gun in question didn't have a current generation thermal clip system, but an older one instead, causing the raider's frown to deepen. Who the hell would still use something this old? He reached down to the thermal clip dispenser he had attached to his belt and set it from from three to one. Then he broke into limp and gritted his teeth as his legs erupted with pain, but he had to get to his previous position and turned the limp into a very painful trot.

The crackle of gunfire was picking up again from the defensive line. That's when he saw it, roughly two hundred meters away from where he had been, was a massive glowing crater that was thirty meters in diameter, within that crater there was _nothing_ left save a smooth interior that was as smooth as glass and within seventy meters of that crater all that remained were twisted unrecognizable plates from armor, blackened half melted lumps that might have been weapons, and bits of bone that had been carbonized to the point that they were completely _black_.

The other shot had landed short by about fifty meters and the other had apparently gone insanely long, for he couldn't see the crater.

He looked back over the remains of the earthworks. Bolts of plasma were streaking forth across the plain again. Dhesvan brought his crappy rifle up and fired, unleashing a blizzard of metal shards on the closest figure he could see. Kinetic barriers flash into existence before suddenly flickering and going out.

Shifting his aim slightly, Dhesvan fired another pair of short bursts and the figure dropped as grain sized bullets tear into its neck and face, causing something to spray wildly. He hit the ejection key, and a steaming thermal clip ejected, he grabbed another clip and inserted it. The rifle emitted a quiet chirp indicating it was ready to fire.

The howl of a human Gauss Cannon got his attention as a blinding blue projectile shot across the battlefield and struck a FRV square in the nose. It's kinetic barriers blew out and the nose of the vehicle simply crumpled, composites shattering and flames erupting as the hydrogen engine was blown apart by the heavy slug. The front end of the vehicle sagged pathetically towards the ground, the front of it's frame all but destroyed. The crew was undeterred for the remote controlled automatic grenade launcher kept on pumping out grenades.

Another concussive roar shook the battlefield as an immense explosion shook the ground, a streak of vapor went from the line of his comrades to the treeline that was to the left of the crest of a small rise that the Wraith had appeared from. The sound of splintering and crashing trees preceded its emergence. Dhesvan's jaw slackened as a monstrous UNSC M850A3 Grizzly Heavy Battle Tank prowled out of the trees like something out of a nightmare. It immediately started advancing on the left flank that was some two or three kilometers away.

It's Spartan Laser discharged in a radiant flash of green energy and the FRV that had been damaged by the Gauss Cannon earlier had flames explode outward from its body. One of the doors burst open and a figure wreathed in flames managed to get out of the vehicle and managed to take a few steps before collapsing.

With a musical whirl the three wraiths from earlier reappeared, their plasma mortars glowing with power as they crested the small rise. The lead one had damage from where the Strike Tank had tried to kill it, but the SAP rounds had just bounced harmlessly off the armor only scuffing and denting the armor. They were followed by six more tanks of similar design that sported squat turrets that mounted looming cannons.

The grinding of treads and the splintering crash of more trees being felled caught Dhesvan's attention and his mouth dropped open in shock and fear, for two, no, _three_ more massive Grizzly Heavy Battle Tanks, each an eighty-plus ton behemoth came out of the treeline.

Their massive main guns fired and the ensuing explosions seemingly tore apart an entire section of ridgeline that the slavers had holed up. Most of the remaining Strike Tanks opened fire on the Grizzlies. The shells were sparking off their shields and unlike against the Wraiths, those shields weren't showing any signs of failing.

Then the Grizzlies fired, four massive shells screamed away from monstrous muzzles in a blinding white streak and four dazzling green flashes from the Spartan Lasers lanced forth. Immediately afterwards four Strike Tanks simply transformed into rapidly expanding clouds of flaming debris while four others became hellish infernos.

The amount of fire that was hammering the massive human Heavy Battle Tanks dropped by more than half as the massive shockwaves from the guns firing and the sounds of friendly tanks dying hit him.

Three vibrant purple blasts ripped through the night sky and the three remaining Strike Tanks popped like water balloons. Great gouts of fire erupting with vivid savageness in the night as more colleagues were effortlessly snuffed out.

Harsh blue pulses suddenly emanated from the hulking Grizzlies, it wasn't plasma. The color was all wrong, plasma tended to be indigo but these pulses were electric blue. Dazzling Hardlight blue.

He hit the zoom function on his helmet and watched as the explosive shots blew panicking men and beast apart with horrendous ease. The Grizzlies had halted but were unrelenting in their assault as the multiple machine guns they had got into the fray, sun yellow tracers from their ETC machine guns and light blue tracers from mass effect machine guns joined the hardlight pulses. Plasma bolts from infantry came into play as well, this time the range wasn't long and thus the weapons lived up to their devastating effectiveness. Ripping limbs off and tearing open torsos with savage ease.

Those who weren't cut to ribbons or blown apart or maimed by the various weapons that had been brought to bear against them were pinned down. They couldn't move otherwise they would die.

"Goddamn, that's brutal." Dhesvan mutters as he watches the carnage unfolded, even though it's from a safe distance it's still alarming to see how poorly Batarian State Arms had kept up with the changing times.

It didn't matter, the roar of three Plasma Mortars discharging changed that. The almost serene white comets were majestic in-flight. Were it naught for the carnage that they brought upon impact. Dhesvan would have thought they were some of the most beautiful things that he had ever seen in his life.

Then they impacted and in an instant, most of the left flank simply _evaporated_. With those who could running for their lives. The deafening roars of the explosions were ear-shattering, shrubbery that wasn't incinerated or ripped to pieces by the shockwave were set aflame by the thermal pulse until he realized that they were his fellow slavers. They had been turned in fiery torches and they jerked and "danced" as they desperately tried to put themselves out. But the flames clung to them, the very bodygloves of their hardsuits having been set aflame. One-by-one the figures fell to the scorched ground and didn't get back up.

With the path cleared, the Grizzlies and infantry started advancing again. They rolled right up to the shattered lines. The infantry ignited plasma bayonets and surged over the remains of the earth works and descended upon the disorganized raiders with a blood-chilling scream.

It quite simply turned into chaos as both sides engaged in hand-to-hand combat. The UNSC Marines had the advantage of being specifically trained in hand-to-hand combat exercise while the raiders were more used to getting into CQC. "Come on Dhesvan, we got to go!" A rumbling voice resounded behind him as an immense hand clamped on his shoulder.

He turned and found himself looking up into the rugged scowling visage of a Jiralhanae. Dhesvan swallowed and nodded, he despised the two-eyed creature but knew that it was correct.

The brute turned and marched into the darkness, Dhesvan sighed and followed the massive alien. Together they quickly vanished from the field of combat, leaving it behind, it was during that march away from the battlefield. Away from the sounds of melee combat, gunfire, clacking treads, whining anti-gravity drives, and wails of plasma mortars among other sounds, Dhesvan decided that he would change.

The reasoning being that he was done with this shit. If _this_ was sort of response he could expect then what was the point of continuing to be a slaver? That answer was quite simply nothing, it had in-essence become a self-destructive job. But where would he go? What could he do? He shook his head, he would figure that out when he came to it, for now he had to focus on putting one foot in front of the other and leaving his previous life behind. It would be a tedious process but he would _change_ , he didn't know how long it would take but he would.

* * *

 **2239 Hours, January 20th, 2667 (Military Calendar)**

 **First Age of Realization, One-hundred fourteenth Cycle**

 **Attican Traverse, Rose Petal Cluster, Angel Theta System, Angel IV, Planet Mindoir**

 **D+ 00:00:45:30 Specs Ops Minor Taza 'Tengam** **Mission Clock**

Taza moved quietly through the underbrush with a grace and noise generation that didn't seem possible for a being of his size and weight. More than that, spotting him was an exercise in futility, his active camo generator produced very little heat and blended in perfectly with its surroundings. The lances had split into pairs and were moving to surround the freighter.

The sounds of combat were barely audible, but he could tell by pulling up his tactical map that it showed the enemy were in the process of folding.

" _Got eyes on the objective._ " Actual reports.

Taza tensed as icons appeared on the tacmap: red indicating enemies, a pale purple indicating the civilians, dull green indicated friendlies, and bright blue indicated positions for the operatives to take up.

He carefully crept through the underbrush and reached his position at the edge of a clearing, he immediately spotted eight Batarians and two Jiralhanae. They were patrolling the perimeter but they obviously looked worried, not surprising considering what was happening to there fellows only ten kilometers away. He could also see that the two Batarians were armed with Batarian State Arms made Assault Rifles while the two Jiralhanae were armed with Spikers.

"In position." he whispers into the com, flashing his status light.

On his HUD, additional lights winked as his fellows got into position. He glanced at the estimated enemy count, so far it was roughly as many raiders as their were Spec Ops Sangheili.

Beyond the patrolling trio, the form of a downed freighter loomed. Their main objective, inside was who knew only how many captive civilians. He settled his sights on the Jiralhanae, as it was the biggest immediate threat that he could see.

The enemy count kept going up, until it stopped at around 120-enemies, so twelve groups of ten enemies. A little higher than expected, but not surprising. Intelligence was occasionally wrong on enemy counts after all. Still, he didn't like this. If intelligence was off by the amount that they were for that many enemies outside of the downed ship, then how many actually were inside it?

The last status light for his lance had long turned green, but he suspected that in a moment all hell was going to break loose. Then came the call. " _All units, execute._ "

Taza pulled the trigger twice on his rifle. It kicked against his shoulder as it spat six plasma bolts. The first burst caught the Brute in the chest and the second in the head, armor and padding ablated and burned followed by bodily fluids flash boiling.

3-4 engaged at the sametime at the other Brute with similar results. Both of the massive aliens falling to the ground, their chests torn open and everything above the shoulders missing.

The batarians were in the process of swinging towards the source of the plasma blasts when Taza pulled a gravity grenade off his bandolier, thumbed the activation rune and then tossed it with pinpoint precision.

The grenade landed directly among the batarians and on impact it instantly superheated it's payload of exotic nuclear isomers. The purple-black gravimetric vortex rippled into existence, the raiders screamed as the intense gravity currents dragged them towards it's center, lifting them off their feet while simultaneously turning their armor against them, bones cracked and splintered. Then the unstable gravimetric vortex exploded and pieces of slavers were sent flying in all directions.

"Target neutralized." Taza announces quietly as several other muted claps of Gravity Grenades detonating rang through the air.

Mass Effect gunfire started up for a moment before being just as quickly snuffed out by the crackle of plasma fire and gravity grenades. Like ghosts, the Spec Ops broke into the clearing, utterly invisible. Positional orders flash on Taza's HUD, Alpha File would be breaching the ship and Bravo File would secure the perimeter.

 _Seems easy enough._ Taza thought as his Lance stacked up on one of the airlocks in preparation to breach. His motion tracker was lighting up with about a dozen contacts beyond the inner airlock door. All told, in order to breach the airlock they would have to move fast.

" _Standby to breach._ " Imperial 'Datan says gruffly.

One of the operatives affixes an airlock breaching charge to the outer door. " _Charge placed 3-Actual_." Kolcam says once the task is done and he pulls back to a safe distance.

" _Detonate._ " Datan orders.

" _Fire in the hole!_ " Kolcam barks loudly, hitting the detonator. A blinding azure flash of heat and light flares into existence with a muted _his-crump_ as the plasma half blasts half melts it's way through the outer airlock door. Ceramics having turned molten by the heat of the plasma run in rivers to pool upon the ground while a weird haze and smell from vaporized composites fills the air.

A moment later, the second stage in the breaching charge detonates with a thunderclap _boom_ and the squeal of shattering material rings out as the large explosively formed penetrator blasts through the inner airlock door, practically shattering and tearing them out of their tracks simultaneously.

" _Breach!_ " Datan roars.

Taza was second in the door, striding through the remains of the airlock. The few red outlined figures that remained were trying to get their bearings after the breaching charge. He lined up three that were just beginning to get their bearings and fired his underslung plasma shotgun.

Over dozen beams of lethal blue plasma reached out and spear the raiders. They fell silently, their torsos practically eviscerated by the plasma beams.

To his right, a plasma rifle crackled briefly. " _Clear left._ " 3-4 says.

"Clear right." Taza adds.

" _All clear._ " Datan finished before barking out his next orders. " _Down the passageway for twenty-five meters until we hit the first cross intersection, then we take a right and head aft fifty meters before taking a left. We should arrive at the aft cargo hold._ " he says, putting venom into the final words.

Taza winks his status light in response as he cycles his plasma shotgun. It was time to get to work. The operatives moved out, proceeding down the hall at a quick pace, slipping through hatches with near silence.

"Contacts, five batarians in that intersection." Taza said as he spotted the aliens.

" _Take them._ " Datan orders.

Taza's plasma rifle along with the plasma rifle of four others whine as they fire double taps. Within moments five bodies hit the ground in varying states of dismemberment, the only sounds made were those from the corpses hitting the ground and the plasma rifles discharging.

"Clear." Taza announces.

" _Clear._ " Kalcom says.

" _Clear._ " Datan says. " _Advance up to the junction._ " he orders.

Taza winks his status light in response before carefully advancing on point up to the junction. The Batarians in general had great gouges torn out of their chests and their heads in general were missing, usually along with a good portion of their neck.

"Clear left." Taza says as he looks down the passageway to the left of the junction.

" _Clear forwards._ " 3-5 announces.

" _Clear right._ " Datan says before continuing. " _Move out._ " as he places a NAV marker on their HUDs.

Taza and the rest of the Sangheili Lance moved aft, the occasional Batarian or Jiralhanae that appeared was ruthlessly cut down by lethal energy bursts.

" _3-3, four contacts in the upcoming compartment on your right._ " Datan said as they appeared on his motion tracker.

Taza flashed his status light in acknowledgement.

When they got to the hatch, Taza palmed the holographic interface that the door hissed open.

Three Batarians and a massive Krogan flashed red on his HUD. Taza sighted up the Krogan and fired the underslung plasma shotgun. Tendrils of blue fire streaked out of the weapon and the massive alien's kinetic barriers flash while the armor blackens and outer layers vaporize, the massive alien stumbles backward.

Before the Krogan could recover, Taza pulses the trigger five times as fast as he can and the huge alien drops dead. Massive wounds torn out of it's torso and head, super-heated blooding and neural fluid hissing as it was near the boiling point. The rifle fires several more times and the Batarians hit the floor dead.

"Threats neutralized." Taza says over the comm as he moves back into formation with the others.

" _Roger._ " Datan replies as occasionally several other Sangheili would branch off and fire into a compartment.

Ahead of them, several Jiralhanae mercenaries roar battle cries as they approach the junction that would allow them to enter the cargo bay. Taza hits his magnification on his HUD and sees that the massive aliens are armed with a mixture of rod guns, spikers, and even a pair of Brute Shots.

Datan saw it too on his HUD and snorts in response. " _Plasma grenade volley on my mark._ " he orders.

Taza pulls a plasma grenade off his bandolier, his thumb hovering over the activation rune. In his mind he was already calculating the distance, the amount of power needed to throw the grenade, how long it would take for him to get to cover after throwing the grenade to avoid the deluge of fire that would be flung their way once the explosives were inflight.

" _Mark!_ " Datan barks.

Taza thumbed the activation rune and the grenade began emitting vibrant blue-white fire. He then threw the grenade and dove towards a waiting area/turnoff from the passageway to probably allow for smaller species to get out of the way of a group of Krogan or Jiralhanae. The Jiralhanae immediately upon spotting the grenades sailing towards them opened fire with everything they had. Bright yellow spikes and rods streaked past Taza's position while grenades detonated within the passageway and against the bulkheads, spraying shrapnel everywhere.

Taza eyed his shield status bar as it flickered as shrapnel impacted it, causing its strength to flicker down slightly before recharging. This fullislade of fire kept up for several seconds before the passageway was cast in blinding blue-white illumination with a shrieking crash as the grenades detonated and all the incoming fire stopped.

Taza silently counted to three, then poked his head out and confirmed his suspicions. The detonations of the plasma grenades had completely vaporized the Jiralhanae and also had the surrounding bulkheads and decking glowing faintly from the heat of the blasts that had been unleashed.

"Clear." he says eyeing the destruction.

" _Clear_ " 3-7 confirms.

" _Clear_ " 3-5 adds.

" _All clear, standby to breach the cargo bay._ " Datan orders.

The ten Sangheili advanced and took up breaching positions near the hatchway, while Kolcam went to the hatchway and placed a more simple plasma breaching charge, rather than an airlock breaching charge. " _Charge placed._ " he says as he falls back to a safe distance.

" _Burn it._ " Datan orders.

Kolcam hits the detonator and blinding hot plasma blazes into existence rapidly eating through the hatchway's locking mechanisms, turning them into molten sludge that was beyond useless. The extreme heat also caused the material of the door itself to drastically lose strength due to the massive temperature differences it was being exposed to.

Several seconds later the dazzling flash of plasma died away. Datan waited three seconds before giving out his next order. " _Breach!_ " he roars as he breaks cover in a powerful run and delivers a massively powerful kick to the weakened hatchway.

The hatch simply crumples and is thrown from it's tracks, impacting a guardrail two and half meters away with a loud _squ-clang_! A counter-boarding team of Batarians having been scattered like bowling pins.

Taza being the third one in sees this immediately. His rifle comes up and spits lethal energy bursts, two Slavers drop dead.

Shouts of alarm and fear go up from other Batarians and a few Jiralhanae as they realize exactly _what_ they are facing along with the realization of just how screwed they were.

How screwed were they?

Very.

All the guns and explosives in the world means nothing if you can't bring them to bear. More so when energy bolts and crystalline needles materialize from nowhere and the shooters are constantly moving meaning that you can't fire back along the bearing the shots came from. The slaughter of the raiders inside the cargo hold took less than five minutes as an additional Sangheili Spec-Ops Lance entered the cargo hold. Against twenty of the best Spec-Ops Operatives in the entire Sangheili Empire, the raiders stood absolutely no chance.

* * *

 **0825 Hours, January 21st 2667 (Military Calendar)**

 **Attican Traverse, Rose Petal Cluster, Angel Theta System, onboard UNSCN** _ **Tachi**_

 **Tracking… Located Franklin Shepard**

Franklin hated hospitals and by extension medical clinics. The pervasive smell of antiseptics was seemingly all encompassing and it clung to one with a pervasiveness and stubbornness that was difficult to remove.

Yet he didn't have a choice in this matter, for right now he was in prep for the surgery that would give him his hearing back and for that he was eternally grateful. But he just wished that more of his family had survived and even as it stood the doctors were hopeful that his last remaining family member, Jenna would survive. Particularly considering that she had survived the night.

What they weren't hopeful on was whether or not she would have constant abdominal pains, the scarring had been very severe. Medical technology was advanced, but even it had its limits. Then again it seemed like everything had it's damned limits these days.

Franklin sighed, he wished that everything hadn't changed as terrifyingly fast as it had. Whenever he closed his eyes, he would find himself back there, running for his life with Jenna from the slavers. With all the noises and smells returning to him during those periods. The life he knew was for all intents and purposes was quite frankly gone.

Suddenly the sheet that seperated his bed from the others in the ward was pulled back and a Navy nurse entered. "You ready Franklin?" she asks, the words extremely muffled and distorted, to the point of barely being audible.

Franklin nodded. "I am ready, might as well get this surgery over with." he replies as he stands up.

It's a short walk to the ship's surgical ward, which like the rest of the ship had a aesthetically pleasing look to it. Machines beeped and hummed, the bed while it didn't look comfortable had a brilliant whiteness to it. Franklin sighed and looked at the nurse. "Will I feel anything?" he asks.

The nurse looked at him. "No dear, you won't." she says in response.

Franklin nods. "I wonder if I'll dream." he mutters as he gets into bed.

The nurse looked at him apologetically. "I don't know, but what I do know is that at the very least you'll be able to get a nice long rest." she replies.

Franklin hummed to himself after everything that had transpired, being able to actually get some honest-to-god sleep, even if it was induced artificially, sounded good, like really good. "It does." he says at last lying down in the bed.

A minute later another figure walked in. Franklin recognized him as none other than the Chief Surgeon aboard ship, one Doctor Henry. He talked to the nurse for a couple of minutes and then turned to Shepard. "We're about to start, think you can do me a favor Franklin?" Henry asks.

"What?" Franklin asks.

"Can you please count to ten for me?" he says.

Franklin while surprised by the question nods. "Okay." he says before counting. He barely managed to make it to seven before he fell asleep due to the anesthetic.

* * *

 **CODEX - Weapons - Thermal Clips:** The Shanxi Affair showed that while Mass Accelerator fire using AP rounds was effective against UNSC Battle Armor, being capable of penetrating the nanocrystalline polymer-ceramic-titanium composites used in the hardened plates, it often took a substantial number of rounds to do so. The biggest thing however was that it was revealed that during battles with the UNSC was that one of the biggest contributors to Turian casualties was waiting for their weapon to cooldown after having been overheated from long periods of burst firing.

Enter the Thermal Clip in 2641, a disposable disc shaped lithium heatsink. They absorb heat generated by firing more efficiently via a endothermic reaction than integrated heat sinks. However the chemical change means that they can't be allowed to cool but this is a non factor as it takes scant seconds for a trained soldier to swap clips. As an added bonus it allowed for higher end of velocities with infantry grade Mass Accelerators to be reached at the exchange of having fewer shots per clip. Some of the higher end guns actually have both Thermal Clips and Integrated Heat Sinks however, allowing users to switch from integrated heat sinks to thermal clips with the flip of a switch.

In 2660, a new design of thermal clip allowed for multiple thermal clips to inserted into a single weapon, while only using one clip by using part of the liquid cooling used in the old integrated heat sink system to carry heat to the sinks where it is then transferred to said sink by working the coolant through the lithium were upon it's drawn out, the liquid is then sent back to the barrel and the cycle continues. When the clip is emptied, the user cycles a new one into place by pulling back on what would be referred to as a "bolt" in slug thrower firearms and by 2665, the UNSC was experimenting with weapons that use the recoil force from firing to simultaneously eject the spent thermal clip and slot in the new one.

* * *

 **CODEX - Weapons - Plasma Mortar:** Plasma weapons are universally feared on the modern battlefield. But in the heavy weapon or indirect fire role, there is none as terrifying as the plasma mortar. These weapons earned a reputation that was justly deserved during the Human-Covenant War, with the largest ones having not only the capability to vaporize a small building but also for having the ability to maim and kill for a sizable distance beyond the point at which the weapon could no longer vaporize. With other killing aspects being extreme heat and the shockwave generated by such blasts.

The smallest Plasma Mortar model can vaporize everything within five meters of impact, while the largest mounted on the fearsome Mega-Turret can vaporize everything with seventy-meters of impact. However the largest model that is commonly deployed is mounted on vehicles such as the Type-85 Assault Gun Carriage and Type-70 Heavy Artillery Platform, known as the Wraith and Gargoyle respectively.

Defenses against this sort of weapon if your in the vaporization area is non-existent, not even Generation Three MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor can survive being within the vaporization threshold. To say nothing of regular UNSC marine armor, this weapon that in general it doesn't care what it hits, it going to reduce at least part of it to vapors.

* * *

 **AN: Alright, another chapter is finished, I will say right now, except that the slavers are soon going to have a pissed off Super Assault Carrier and four** _ **CPV**_ **class Heavy Destroyers knocking on their door.**


	16. Wrath of the Sangheili Part One

**AN:** The Batarians have fucked up by messing with the bull and now they are gonna get the horns badly. This will likely be a two-parter maybe a three-parter.

 **IMPORTANT NOTE:** My yields for UNSC Magnetic Accelerator Cannons and yields for Citadel Space Mass Accelerator Cannons for the entire Shanxi Affair Arc are completely false. This is entirely on me because for calculating kinetic energy, once you get above 3,000-kilometers per second, you got to start to taking Relativistic Effects into consideration. Thus I feel like a _complete idiot_ for not researching that. The yields mentioned in this chapter and from here on out however are accurate, I know I should be better than this, hell even Bioware remembered to take relativistic effects into account when they calculated the yield for the main gun of an _Everest_ class Dreadnought.

So when I do rewrite the opening chapters, that's _another_ thing I need to change.

 **ALSO:** My heart goes out to those in Paris in light of the Notre Dame Cathedral Fire, it was sad but the Cathedral shall be rebuilt. I know in my heart that it'll reopen, the Cathedral has been around for 850-years and it's not going anywhere, anytime soon.

 **SYSTEM ALERT: NEW CODEX ENTRY AVAILABLE**

* * *

 **0010 Hours, January 22nd, 2667 (Military Calendar)**

 **Sao Starsystem, Sao III, Planet Vibburn**

The Batarian Slave Cruiser _Wailing Wind_ came out of FTL through the Mass Relay and into the Sao Star System, one of the main slave trade planets in the entire Hegemony. In its holds were close to seven thousand civilians who had been taken from their old lives and were going to be sold into their new one at the end of the week.

Yet unseen by anyone, on the ship's underside near her engines, a tiny probe no bigger than a softball opened its photographic eye and snapped images of the stellar backdrop and then made comparisons to known charts. While the viral feelers that the probe had sent into the ship's navigation computer confirmed that this was the ship's destination several things happened in a sequence that took five seconds to complete.

First the probe sent viral feelers into the ship's sensor system and flash-copied all of the information that it could feasibly store along with the route information that it had complied to its memory crystal banks. With that task the complete, the probe which had built up considerable energy during the trip extended a small antenna and activated its extremely powerful Quantum Entanglement Communication system. The next phase was heavily encrypting the transmission packet using an encryption key that had been generated by the ship that had launched it. It tripled checked its information compared to the information in the computer banks of the ship it was attached too. Then it transmitted all of its information back to the Sangheili Empire vessel that had launched it, in this particular case the _OAS_ class Super Assault Carrier _Shadow of Intent_. With that task complete, a small but powerful plasma charge detonated and completely immolated the probe while leaving only a small dimple and scorch mark on the exterior plating where it had been, something that could easily be mistaken for a micrometeorite impact.

On the bridge of the _Wailing Wind_ , completely unaware of the Sangheili Empire's recon probe's transmission, Captain Krathor Dramdoss had an immense feeling of satisifaction. He had given both the Sangheili Empire and the United Earth Government's clueless lap dogs the United Nations Space Command the slip while making off with over ten thousand new slaves of a new species to help further enhance the lives of the higher castes within the Hegemony.

Indeed, this had proven once and for all the vast superiority that four-eyed beings had over two-eyed beings. Showing that not even the Relay 314 races could triumph over the Hegemony and on the off-chance that they did manage to track them and launch a rescue mission before the auction, then the unworthy scum would have to deal with the planetary defenses.

Krathor smirked as the viewscreen was illuminated with contacts, there was two dozen defense platforms each with four guns one kilometer in length capable of throwing a shell weighing 700 kilograms to 55,000-kps, the weapons themselves were a stolen Turian design. Solid and dependable, the guns were capable of one-shotting anything up to Destroyer tonnage. To further firm up the orbital defenses was four immensely powerful Orbital Defense Stations.

Also in orbit was three entire squadrons of _Hensa_ class Cruisers, its spinal battery was composed of three guns, each having one of the fastest fire rates in the entire galaxy. They also had clusters of torpedo tubes located along the port and starboard bow, port and starboard stern, and the dorsal and ventral spines along with several heavy GUARDIAN I anti-ship laser emplacements and GUARDIAN II point-defense lasers clusters.

But even they paled in comparison to the firepower that was contained in the Super-Heavy warship division. One _Eeluram_ class Super-Dreadnought, four _Angrathan_ class Dreadnoughts, and six _Ghorvan_ class Battleships. One of only five such divisions in the entire Batarian Hegemony, for each one was headed up by one of the Hegemony's five Super-Dreadnoughts. They were manned by the absolute best that the Hegemony had to offer and the Super-Heavy warship squadron here was on permanent assignment to this world.

That didn't even begin to count the twelve or so the squadrons of Frigates and Destroyers that also flitted about, nor the mercenary formations. Yes, anyone who attacked this world wouldn't be leaving alive or would even achieve planetfall.

"Maneuvering solution to Krouver Skyhook Station received, sir. Were third in the queue, two other ships from our latest slave raid are in front of us." The pilot said.

Krathor grinned viciously, they had been exceptionally successful it seemed even when the technological disparity between the Hegemony and the UNSC as well as the Sangheili Empire was obvious. The very fact that they had been successful meant that the aura of invincibility around the UEG's vaunted military had been completely and utterly shattered.

Things were looking up since it showed that if the Hegemony, a power who had been described by many throughout the Galaxy as having a military that was undermanned, underequipped, and undertrained compared to everyone else, could give the what was considered to be one of the best equipped, best manned, and best trained fighting forces in the Galaxy the run around.

The _Wailing Wind_ rumbled as the prideful vessel entered her holding pattern for the orbital skyhook. The station was currently occupied with four other ships docked too it and judging by the usage of freight elevators were currently unloading their cargo.

 _Yes._ Krathor thought as his grin grew wolfish. _No one would dare challenge the Hegemony now that its been shown that we can stand with the big boys in the galaxy._

The idea of a Hegemony that had more say in galactic affairs was one that he liked very much.

However, fate had other ideas.

* * *

 **0030 Hours, January 22nd, 2667 (Military Calendar)**

 **Era of Realization, One hundred fourteenth Cycle**

 **Attican Traverse, Rose Petal Cluster, Angel-Theta System**

 **Onboard the** _ **Shadow of Intent**_

" _Grand Admiral Rtas, I must protest against the course of action your going to take!_ " The Sangheili Ambassador to the Citadel, Fasan 'Tadam said in alarm.

" _I concur with Fasan, Grand Admiral. Do the words 'Political shitstorm' mean anything to you? Because that's what we're going to deal with if you do this, plus the Hegemony is denying that there's been a slave raid at all._ " Udina said in response.

Rtas had to suppress the urge to growl. "To be frank ambassadors, I don't care what the Hegemony says, there have been numerous raids throughout the Traverse for _centuries_ that have resulted in people disappearing, never to be seen again. The scans that my ship picked up on the Cruiser that fled from New Davenport indicated that there was at least two thousand people in its holds. This is indisputable proof of what this attack was, a slave raid. Remind me if I am wrong, but I distinctly remember slavery being illegal in Citadel Space and the Hegemony is a member of a Citadel. I don't care what the Council says about the Hegemony's cultural right, they are in direct violation of citadel law. For too long they've been flaunting that law and it's about time someone did something about it and to hell with the consequences." The Grand Admiral replied, his tone rumbling with anger.

Fasan sighed. " _Grand Admiral, you know the Council's stance on this and if they find out that you attacked the Hegemony unprovoked, its entirely likely that they will declare war on the Sangheili Empire and even if we managed to prevent that from occurring. The Empire's chances of getting a Council seat will become nonexistent._ " she said.

Rtas snorted in response. "Not if the operation is one that's off the books, remember the exterior plating while it is apart of the armor its more cosmetic, serving to protect the armor from microasteroids, the paint that covers the exterior plating is nano-prismatic based, allowing it to be changed fairly easily with the proper clearance codes. Plus its a known fact that Kig-Yar and Jiralhanae Pirates as well as Covenant Remnants are rather common throughout the Traverse are they not?" he said.

Fasan looked flabbergasted. " _You_ can't be _serious?! Your proposing to launch a Black-Ops raid against the Hegemony!?_ "

Rtas nodded. "I am, the strike will be a smash and grab. We go in, destroy everything in orbit, glass or lase all space ports and military installations, then land ground troops to rescue the slaves. Any slavers encountered groundside will be shot on sight." he said.

Udina paled over the QEC. " _Alright, if the Batarians find out that this strike was a Sangheili Empire Black Op, the words 'Political Shitstorm' aren't going to come close to describing the fallout._ " he said.

"So it may be, but families were torn apart by the raid with some being taken while others were left behind. After serving under the False Prophets, I know one thing for sure. Slavery is an abomination that must be slain considering the treatment that those are bound to get is not going to be pleasant. As far as I am concerned this has become a matter of honor, I will not allow the civilians of the UEG who have signed a mutual defense pact with the Sangheili, to be sold like some piece of property. Not if I have the capability to do something about it." Rtas replied, letting a noticeable growl seep into his voice.

Fasan's expression changed to that of a Sangheili who had just succeeded in avoiding being run-over an industrial air-heavy hauler. " _Your dead set on doing this aren't you?_ " she asked in a tone full of dread.

Rtas nodded. "I am, the Citadel might not be willing to do anything to stop the injustice about allowing the Hegemony to continue the usage of slavery, but no one has done anything apart from raising a fuss about it. There has to be a point where the line is drawn and I think that the line has to drawn now." he said.

Udina sighed. " _I understand, godspeed Rtas._ " he said before cutting connection.

Fasan glowered at Rtas but then she too sighed and shook her head. " _If this goes wrong Grand Admiral, the Batarians at best will demand that you get kicked out of military and at worst they'd demand we turn you over to face Batarian justice._ " she said.

"I know that, which is why we are going to be exceptionally thorough in our attack." Rtas replied as he nodded in understanding.

" _Oh dear, you mean your going to use False Crusade tactics on them?_ " Fasan asked.

Rtas gave the Sangheili equal to a grin. "To a degree, all civilian starships that are stupid enough to stay and either fight or watch the show will be disabled while all warships, orbital defense platforms, and space elevators will be engaged and destroyed." he said.

" _How will the civilian ship's be disabled?_ " Fasan asked.

"Simple using pulse lasers we will knock out weapon emplacements, mass effect field generators, fuel tanks, and engines." Rtas replied.

Fasan nodded. " _Okay, I see. I take it that the weapons used will be lasers then to disable to civies?_ " she said.

Rtas nodded. "Yes, but if any civilian ship tries to ram one of ours, lethal force will be used after being given a warning to break off from their course." he explained.

" _Reasonable and completely within rules of engagement. Grand Admiral, all I have to say is good luck._ " Fasan replied.

"Thank you ambassador." Rtas said in response.

Fasan nodded and then the connection cut. Rtas turned and walked out of the compartment and then he went a hundred units forward into CIC, as he entered the compartment, the distinctive whistle indicating that the CO was on deck went off.

"Admiral on deck!" Thusha announced quickly and the bridge came to attention.

"As you were." The Grand Admiral said.

"Grand Admiral we have contact from our probe!" A tech announced.

"What's the location of the slaver?" Rtas asked as he walked to his command chair.

"He's at the Sao System, Sao III. Sir, that's a well-known Hegemony World with multiple orbital tethers and they even have one of their heaviest units permanently assigned to the world." The tech replied stiffly.

Rtas looked thoughtful as he thought of a plan of attack. The most powerful weapons there were in the hands of the orbital platforms and stations, as well as the capital ships. But from what he had read in intelligence reports, the Hegemony hadn't upgraded their fleet as much as they would've liked. Most reports actually agreed that the Hegemony while its navy was big, it was merely a paper tiger. Regardless, the Sao system was just over a day's travel at maximum slipspace velocity.

"Plot a course to the Sao System, maximum slipspace velocity." Rtas ordered as a plan began to form in his plan. It was risky, but it could work, mainly because it was something that was completely unexpected.

After a moment the astrogator spoke up. "Course plotted." she replied.

Rtas waited a moment, as he contemplated how his actions would affect the Galaxy. He then came to a conclusion and he was filled with an iron hard resolve. "Execute." he said firmly.

"Engaging FTL." the helmsman replied as with a low hum, the Slipspace drive happily accepted the energy from the capacitors.

On the exterior of _Shadow of Intent_ and her honor guard, purple-blue light flared and rippled over the hulls. Blue-black portals opened in-front of the Sangheili vessels and their engines flashed, they vanished into elusive dimension without a trace.

The _Shadow of Intent_ and her honor guard were fastest ships in the entire Sangheili Empire fleet, manufactured Forerunner Crystals that had been reversed engineered from the pieces of the one that The Demon's Blue Team had discovered under ONI's CASTLE Base. Rtas didn't know how they worked exactly, but what he did know was that thanks to the crystals in the slipspace drive, the cruising velocity for the group was around 4,050 light-years per day and maximum velocity was around 6,750 light-years per day.

"Accelerating to maximum velocity, maximum velocity attained, estimated time of arrival is twenty-seven hours." The helmsman said simply after conferring with the navigation computer and the route that the astrogator had sent him.

Now it was time to plan the upcoming battle, arguably the most difficult part of the battle was planning it. Rtas glanced at his Flag Captain who nodded, he gave an order to the communications officer that all commanding officers for the ships in _Shadow of Intent_ 's honor guard to prepare for an operation planning meeting, once he got a response the flag captain for _Shadow of Intent_ barked an order for the first officer to take command of the bridge. Both of them left the main bridge and went to the ship's flag bridge, it wasn't as hi-tech as the UNSC operation planning rooms but it got the job done.

The Flag Bridge was even more protected than the main bridge and it had numerous communication stations, as well as a large holotable, it also had extensive operation planning capabilities. Those capabilities would be used for this upcoming operation. Rtas would admit that he wasn't surprised in the slightest to find that the Arbiter was already there, his usual expression replaced by one that was rarely seen anymore by anyone, the last time he had seen that expression was shortly before the Battle of Kamchatka in 2563, which had resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Storm Covenant's naval forces, the death of Jul 'Mdama, and the discovery of a Forerunner Dreadnought. The glower of an excellent void warfare tactician who had been known by the Covenant Empire's military as simply the Supreme Commander. Humanity, on the other hand had feared him and they had given Thel a nickname that was as flattering as it was accurate in its meaning, Destroyer; for the simple fact that he was the only Covenant Commander who could engage Admiral Preston J. Cole in open conflict and have a chance of winning. The two had locked horns with each other a good dozen times during the False Crusade, with the exception of two cases they had effectively fought each other to a draw.

Rtas could tell that he was going to be taking a backseat in this one. He was a competent void commander yes, but compared to Thel he may as well have been an amaetur. It was also a sign of just how serious a matter that he considered the upcoming battle if he was going to be commanding the task force and not Rtas.

It also meant that whoever their opponent was, they were in for a _really_ bad time because Thel _didn't_ mess around when it came to void warfare. He was what you could consider an artist at it.

Rtas quickly booted up the holotable and then input the information about the Sao System that they had on hand through Citadel databases and from what they had received from their probe.

The holotable glowed as first a blue-white A-type star materialized, then orbital tracks and the various planetary bodies appeared. Sao system was rather small with just three rocky planets, a modest asteroid belt, and an ice giant. Then tiny ships and stations appeared, mostly freighters and what appeared to be yachts but there was a considerable number of warships, orbital defense platforms, orbital defense stations, several orbital tethers, and lastly the system's six communication buoys. Finally the whole system was doused in the purples, blues, and greens of the small nebula that the system resided in.

Rtas then opened the meeting and took a step back away from the table to his normal meeting position. Almost immediately afterwards, the imposing form of Bakkais, the shipmaster for _Proclamation's Tithe_ flickered into existence. He was notable for being the only Jiralhanae shipmaster in the entirety of _Shadow of Intent_ 's honor guard and while he was often blunt and to the point he was also very good at his job. However, Rtas also knew that he was one of the first members of the Covenant to question why humanity was being exterminated after seeing helmet cam footage and hearing from the few survivors tell about their sacrifice to destroy the Flood infested Shield World 0459.

Bakkais had also served under Thel during the False Crusade and had received multiple commendations for daring and courage under fire. He had also been decorated by Thel personally for showing initiative and daring when he had led his unit of destroyers on a flanking maneuver that had caused the flank of a UNSC formation to crumble and as the humans had tried to contain his destroyers, it allowed Thel to punch straight through their center, turning the engagement from fairly equal into a bloodbath.

A few moments later, the shipmaster of the _Rising Arc_ , Ata 'Dasum appeared. Like Bakkais he also was a False Crusade veteran. He hadn't come to see humanity as an adversary that was worthy of respect and could be honorable until the human year 2548, when a pair of human Corvettes and four Sloops went and engaged in combat with _Rising Arc_ despite being hilariously outgunned in a desperate attempt to buy time for a Superliner that was packed with civilians to escape, an attempt that succeeded even though all six human warships were reduced to gutted, burned out, lifeless hulks.

The next to appear was Vazo 'Murum, the Shipmaster for the _Triumphant Spirit_. Unlike everyone else, he was the only destroyer captain who wasn't a False Crusade veteran. However he had seen plenty of action during the Blooding Years however and thus knew how to handle and fight his ship, not only that he could do it well.

The last destroyer captain to appear is Shipmaster Rasze 'Trattin of the _Infinite Promise_. Like the majority of the Shipmasters in the _Shadow of Intent_ 's Honor Guard he too is a False Crusade veteran and had willingly remained the captain of his destroyer despite being offered reassignment multiple times. His record showed it too, surviving countless battles despite often being given suicide missions.

At that moment, the hatchway slid open with a hiss and the last seven Shipmasters that commanded ships in _Shadow of Intent_ 's honor guard walked in. The _Shadow of Intent_ always carried a small hunter-killer group with her that was stored in her immense dorsal hanger:Kuka 'Krafam of the _CAR_ class Frigate _Undying Intent_ , two _DAV_ class Light Corvettes of the _Firro_ -pattern: the _Rising Thunder_ and _Ardent Resolve_ which were commanded by Vekan 'Matum and Zura 'Lazam respectively, and four _DAS_ class Storm Cutters: _Minor Harbinger_ , _Prophet's Damnation_ , _Clarity's Edge_ , and _Twilight Flames_ ; which were commanded by Fitan 'Gogum, Rtosa 'Nusam, Grela 'Luhom, and Zuda 'Tarum respectively.

Hunter-killer groups of such composition had been rightly feared by UNSC Frigate Wolfpacks and Destroyer Squadrons because of the fact that for their tonnage those ships had some of the highest firepower-per-ton ratios within the entire Covenant Navy, plus their ability to cover large areas of space quickly meant that they could if deployed right, be an absolute bane to Prowlers.

Rtas noted with a slight shiver that Thel had the same look on his face that he did before he and the Demon began the offensive to slay the False Prophet of Truth. He was utterly furious and if he knew his friend his focus was razor sharp. When he spoke, it was a rumbling growl that spoke volumes about his mood and feelings for the upcoming operation. "Gentlemen, as you know we have had over two dozen slave raids occur across this cluster within the past thirty-six hours with tens of thousands of innocent civilians taken from their lives. For far too long the Hegemony has been hiding behind the Citadel Council who claim its their cultural right to allow slavery, which disobeys a Citadel law forbidding it. We're going to do something about it, thanks to recon probe we have discovered where one of the wretches has fled too in order to make a profit from his cargo." He began.

A murmur of agreement went through the collective Shipmasters at the thought of doing something to send a real message to the Hegemony on what the Sangheili Empire had to say about slavery was extremely appealing. The fact that they would be enforcing Citadel Law was an added bonus, plus it would show to the Hegemony just how out-matched they were. It would brutally _shatter_ all that the propaganda machine that the Hegemony worked to build.

"Our objective thus is a smash and grab, we are going to be rescuing as many slaves as we can as well the victims from the most raids. However in order to have the best chances for success we have is that we quickly and effectively sever all communications and decapitate their defense forces. We also have to destroy all enemy space vessels and comm buoys in-system. No mercy is to be shown to the enemy. To hide our affiliation, we will changing the color scheme for our ships to that of a known Covenant Remnant that has Super Assault Carriers. Now our plan of attack is as follows, its a multi-phase and layer assault." Thel said before looking at Vekan 'Mutan, Fitan 'Gogum, and Rtosa 'Nusam.

"Phase one of the plan requires three ships from the Hunter-killer group as well as multiple Peludas and Zmeus in order to be executed. Shipmasters Mutan, Gogum, and Nusam; that assignment falls to you. Your objective is the neutralization of every single military installation and communications facility on the planet groundside, along with completely negating the ability of the space ports that you find to direct traffic. Try to limit excessive force and avoid unnecessary civilian casualties, thus don't use Plasma torpedoes and energy projectors unless it's absolutely necessary. You will be inserting via in-atmosphere slipspace transition, exiting slipspace at an altitude of fifteen thousand meters above the surface." The Arbiter continued in a firm tone, as he toggled a control and on the planet multiple green dots began move across the surface leaving in their wake a series of yellow, orange, and blue fireballs from plasma weaponry.

Vekan looked shocked. "Arbiter, isn't that an extremely risky way to start the operation? Once the Batarians start to react, they are going to send frigate squadrons into atmosphere in order to deal with us." he said simply.

The look Thel gave made Rtas realize just how diabolical the battle plan he had come up with was. "Indeed Shipmaster Mutan, which is why when our sensors pick up those formations beginning to move, we execute phase two." he toggled another control and the red holographic ships began to move. Then suddenly below the orbital grid and near the comm buoys slipspace ruptures materialized. "The Heavy Destroyers _Triumphant Spirit_ and _Infinite Promise_ along with additional Peludas will drop out of FTL below the enemy's orbital defense grid and immediately commence attack, your targets are the orbital defense platforms and stations as well as any military installation that hasn't been destroyed planetside and any enemy ships that engage you. But for the love of the Gods try to not destroy the orbital tethers. At the same time as you jump in however, Seraph fighters will perform micro-jumps and destroy the communication buoys, severing communications to the rest of the galaxy. Also destroy any formations moving towards the planet with whatever weapons you see fit." he continued as the green holographic representations of _CPV_ class Heavy Destroyers and _Seraph_ class fighters appeared, all through the system energy weapons discharged resulting in satellites and buoys winking out.

"That's incredibly risky, something goes wrong we will be in a bad position." Vazo said, looking at the display. "The enemy will most certainly realize that they are indeed under attack when we drop out of FTL and send multiple ships after us. Given the number of ships, I wouldn't expect us to last long." he said.

Thel snorted. "They won't fire their spinal mounts, if they miss the slug will likely hit the planet and would cause tremendous amounts of collateral damage particularly if the shell struck a city. If they are to limit that then they would have to use torpedoes, Guardian anti-ship laser batteries, and secondary kinetic guns." he told the shipmaster.

Vazo's expression grew pensive. "That means that as long as we don't take torpedo hits they'll have trouble knocking us out. Back during the False Crusade our shields could absorb one maybe two MAC rounds before failing and those hit with a couple of gigatons of energy. So our biggest worry besides torpedoes is those orbital platforms or stations deciding to take pot shots at us with their guns, but again if they miss then they'll likely hit the planet." he said in response.

"Indeed, as enemy ships begin to respond to your presence. The next phase of the attack begins. _Rising Arc_ and _Proclamation's Tithe_ will exit slipspace and make as if they are making a frontal assault, while appearing on a completely unexpected vector will be _Shadow of Intent_. At the same time, _Seraphs_ will perform Micro-slipspace jumps and will engage what remains of the orbital defense grid." Thel said, the tiny forms of _Seraphs_ , along with two _CPV_ class Heavy Destroyers and one _OAS_ class Super Assault Carrier appeared, they started exchanging weapons fire with the enemy fleet while the two heavy destroyers engaging the orbital grid opened fire with their plasma torpedoes against the enemy fleet.

"The moment that the enemy formation breaks or looses cohesion, the other half of Hunter-Killer Group makes a pinpoint jump right into their midst while _Shadow of Intent_ along with the _Rising Arc_ and _Proclamation's Tithe_ advance, continuing to engage with all available weapon batteries." Thel said, hitting a toggle and the screen devolved into chaos as the Batarian line began breaking apart. As it did so, slipspace ruptures flashed within the enemy formation and one frigate, a corvette, and two storm cutters were among the enemy and they opened fire. At the same time, the _Shadow of Intent_ along with the two destroyers making a frontal attack accelerated, still firing their weapons.

Enemy ships simply died as their hulls simply melted and boiled under the onslaught of plasma and lasers, energy beams and particle beams simply sliced the ships apart, and fuel rod as well as antimatter and gravimetric ordnance struck blowing vessels apart.

"After all enemy forces in space are neutralized we will deploy large numbers of infantry via drop pods and armor via dropships. Try to avoid excessive civilian casualties if possible, but remember we have to make it look as if it was a Covenant Remnant attack. Thus restrictions on targeting civilians is loosened but not overly so, _Shadow of Intent_ 's sensors will mark out the location of were the prisoners are being kept, which will likely be either in warehouses near the Space Elevators or near auction houses." He spat out the last two words as if it disgusted him.

The truth of the matter that the mere idea of slavery after working with slaves during his time with the Covenant utterly rankled him. The idea that Slavery was still occurring, it just wasn't right. All sentients had the right to live and make their own decisions without being owned by someone else.

"What about the orbital tethers and their warehouses when the raid is over? Same with the auction districts?" Someone asked.

"Burn the auction districts and the warehouses that contain slaves to ashes." Thel replied quickly and firmly, in a tone that brokered no argument.

A murmur of agreement went through the collective shipmasters as that information sank in. The idea of completely annihilating the locales were slave auctions happened was vastly appealing. It would show to the galaxy that there were those who wouldn't let it stand.

"Alright, your all dismissed. Prepare your ships for battle." The Arbiter commanded.

The assembled shipmasters saluted and then either cut the connections or in the case of the hunter-killer group shipmasters left to go back to their ships. Thel then looked at Rtas and the Grand Admiral was surprised to see that the glower was still there. It made him realize that for all intents and purposes the Arbiter might as well not be here.

"Grand Admiral, you have more experience than I do when it comes to planning and commanding ground battles. Brief the ground forces fully on our their objectives and parse out which units are deploying via drop pod and which ones are deploying via dropship. It's your decision just how much armor we are deploying and if any Assault Platforms are being deployed." Thel said firmly in an authoritative toe that brokered no argument.

"As you command Arbiter." Rtas replied in the same tone that Thel was using. This upcoming battle was to be treated as something on par with the Battle of Kamchatka, there was literally no room for error.

* * *

 **0135 Hours, January 23rd, 2667 (Military Calendar)**

 **Sao Starsystem, Sao III, Planet Vibburn**

 **Hegemony Army Ground Force Hanshur Rapid Assault Vehicle**

The Hegemony's Hanshur Rapid Assault Vehicle had been designed as an answer to the United Nations Space Command's Warthog family of vehicles as well as the Nomad family of vehicles that was rumored to be in development. It was a large six-wheeled vehicle with a manned turret in the back that could mount just about any weapon system available in the Hegemony and the capability to carry a fully equipped squad of ten men plus a navigator and driver. The powerful battery electric drive system meant that they produced almost no noise which meant they were difficult to detect. When combined with the Ranshur Fast Recon Vehicle it was a lethal combination.

However PFC Crath Khodparr didn't really like the things, the suspension was in a word, crap. At least the turret had some good shock-absorbers and stabilization. It was just his sixth day out of boot and already he was regretting joining the Ground Forces. The motion tracker was all clear, as usual, he could tell that sometimes Command was just paranoid.

That might have been why he was so jumpy, their paranoia was starting to get to him. The intercom crackled and the firm voice of his commander, First Sergeant Bragrom Rafrahal caused him to start. " _Any contacts Private?_ " he growled out.

"Negative sir, it's all clear as usual. It's just us, our patrol group and the local wildlife." Crath replied bitterly, he wouldn't mind seeing some action.

" _Understood._ " Bragrom said as the Hanshur rounded a bend on the dirt road that they were on. Ahead of the Hanshur that he in was three more Hanshur RAVs while behind it was a Pangolin five-ton truck that was carrying a bunch of artillerymen and a pair of Ranshurs.

One thing that Crath had noted was that in orbit, the amount of traffic had seemingly doubled if not tripled for seemingly no good reason. He didn't know why that was, but it seemed to be part of the reason why high command was suddenly so jumpy. Then again he was fresh out of boot so what did he know?

He swept the turret around as he scanned the night sky like his training told him to do so. It made little sense to do it since they weren't within the Hegemony, but that had been grilled into during training, so despite his misgivings he did it. _Still, why do I have the feeling that something bad is going to happen?_ He thought as the patrol team began to trundle up the rough and rocky ridge that led to an overlook that looked over Arcton Fortress, homebase.

It also meant that they were approaching the halfway mark of this four hour patrol. The fortress was located in the middle of a broad hilly valley that was flanked to the south by a short rise that rose up out of the ground about twenty kilometers to the south. Slowly and methodically the vehicles powered their way up the switchbacks.

Some twenty minutes later the vehicles were rounding the final bend come to the crest of the ridge. There was a couple of bunkers and prefabricated buildings here, meant to deter any attacker and to buy time for a force from the Fortress to arrive. Thirty men were constantly here, manning the bunkers and buildings.

Then all hell broke loose as with a great rippling roar reality tore open. Great forms of a distinctly alien shape that looked more at home in the seas than in the skies hung in the sky with illumination provided by crimson lights that pulsed and glowed appeared in the night sky. The low eerily thrum of anti-gravity drives that seemingly contained more power than regular Batarian ships filled the air.

"What are those and what are they doing here?" Crath asked aloud over the freq.

" _I don't know private, but it can't be good._ " Bragrom replied as the infantry rushed out of the Hanshurs and prefabricated buildings to eye the ships that were hovering over the valley.

"Sir, we're being jammed!" Someone that Crath didn't recognize shouted.

A low wail reached up to those on the overlook and those that could turned their gaze towards Arcton Fortress. Multiple lights had snapped on as fighting men rushed out of the barracks and began streaming towards the armories and the hangers. Powerful searchlights snapped on and traversed through the sky until they settled on the craft. Revealing blue, yellow, and black armor plating that was as intimidating in its pattern as it was aesthetically unpleasing to the eyes.

" _Oh shit, those are Covenant Remnant ships!_ " Bragrom said in a minor panic as pinpricks of light began to appear on the ships, which were now clearly an enemy. Motes of red, green, purple, and cyan began to accumulate as the air turned electric and the smell of ozone filled the air.

To Crath it appeared that the ships regarded the fortress below with something approaching contempt or similar. Then it seemed like hell itself was unleashed as the largest vessel easily some 420 Terran meters opened fire. Dazzling lines of light streaked down from the ship at such a speed that they could only be lasers and began to ruthlessly dismantle Acrton Fortress.

Buildings erupted in fire as molten holes were drilled through them with ease, artillery and anti-aircraft emplacements were slagged, the now crowded pathways had beams sweep across them. Men either evaporated or exploded from the sheer energy the lasers were putting out. A continuous rumble similar to thunder in the distance washed over the position as the lasers ravaged the base.

Then the dazzling purple-white glow reached a fever pitch and the vessel unleashed a salvo from what could only be its plasma bombardment mortars. The six blinding comets that were fired all unleashed a blood-chilling howl as they tore through the atmosphere towards the base.

In the distance another base was already going up in flames as a horde of smaller craft attacked, lances of electric green and blue were ruthlessly hammering the base. But the peril of Actron Fortress was holding everyone's attention, the dazzling comets impacted and exploded, plasma rapidly expanding outwards. Everything within 250 Terran meters simply _evaporated_ as if it was ice tossed into a fusion reactor, the shockwave and thermal pulse reaped catastrophic damage. Buildings shattered, men simply exploded, and vehicles were sent tumbling like tumbleweeds, immense fires erupted and began to burn out of control.

The lasers then started ravaging the hangers and the craft that was rolling out of them and beginning to get airborne which had until this point remained untouched. Ablative armor did nothing and most of the craft simply blew apart in vibrant orange-red fireballs as fuel and ammunition was ignited by the lasers, several simply vanished in the unnaturally black detonation of an ezero core suffering a containment failure, and a few crashed back to the ground in flames. The hangers didn't fare much better, multiple glowing holes were punched into the buildings and they erupted into violent conflagrations as fuel vapors ignited and several were blown apart as the ready munition bunker each hanger had took a hit. Simply adding to the chaos that was unfolding below.

Another salvo of plasma from the bombardment mortars crashed into the base, targeting the up until this point unscathed antenna farm. A sizable complex of antenna dishes that had various uses. The fragile things stood no chance against the destruction that the plasma shots unleashed, most of the farm was simply vaporized in the explosion while the few antennas that survived stood for just long enough to begin melting in the sheer heat before the shockwave reduced them to unrecognizable fragments no bigger than his fist and scattered the remains across hundreds of meters at least.

Then the plasma cannons and turrets on the two smaller ships engaged, sending blue-yellow and crimson teardrop shaped thunderbolts streaking downwards. They impacted the base and weapons that were meant to be used against light warships reaped unparalleled devastation. The ground which had been baking vaporized and turned molten, splitting open as the immense heat caused the underground fuel tanks and munition bunkers to cook off. The entire fortress pulsed with fire and smoke that began to dominate what remained of the base.

An unearthly wail filled the sky, its high pitch like of some monster making it audible over the carphoney of explosions that was turning the Arcton Fortress into unrecognizable ruins. "INCOMING!" Crath shrieked as he spotted the forms of their attackers.

They were shaped similarly to Phantom Dropships but were shorter and had bigger more powerful engines. Before Crath could even begin to bring his turret around the fighters unleashed hell, an avalanche of blinding blue fire streaked from multiple weapon ports. Lethal energy bolts speared through man, pre-fab structure, and vehicle alike with equal ease. The Pangolin five-ton truck went up almost immediately as it was ventilated by plasma fire, the powerful batteries that formed a vital part of its powertrain catching fire while the buildings simply cracked and burned.

But it was what the energy did to the men that would haunt Crath for the rest of his days, if he survived the Covenant Remnant attack that is. Bragrom, his vehicle commander and driver was running back towards the vehicle when he took a direct hit. The heavy energy bolt simply eviscerated everything above his waist which flopped to the ground steaming. Another man burst into flame when an energy bolt flew past in a near miss, the body glove of his armor literally spontaneously combusting. A third man lost both his legs and part of his torso to another energy bolt and fell with a terrified shriek into the remains of his own entrails.

From both of the enemy fighters came a pair what looked like glowing cigarettes that glowed like the eyes of a demon in the night as they screamed in. "MISSILE!" someone shouted in alarm.

Their targets, the four ten-man bunkers that made up the majority of the firebase didn't stand a chance. The missiles punched through the two meters of ferro-concrete and advanced composites like they didn't exist. Then the antimatter warheads within detonated with howling _roars_ that sent bunker bits everywhere, cutting down more men in extremely gory displays and ravaged the Ranshurs, while the Hanshur that Crath was in rocked _hard_ as the kinetic barriers visibly flared.

Crath brought his targeting brackets up and opened fire. The heavy roar of the 30mm gatling mass accelerator cannon filled his ears as a stream of heavy slugs screamed into the sky. The two enemy fighters broke formation and rolled expertly evading his first burst.

The other Hanshurs opened fire, bursts of shells streaked at the fighters which expertly evaded. One of the fighters stitched two of the Hanshurs with plasma bolts, the vehicles simply became infernos as the plasma effortlessly burned away kinetic barriers and then punched through armor, igniting batteries and ammunition. Crackling detonations erupted as the flames rapidly engulfed the vehicles.

"Die dammit!" Crath roared as he opened fire again as the craft swept overhead. The glowing blue projectiles streaked after the fighters as they pulled away. He snarled as the burst missed.

The fighters looped around for another pass, an alarm blared in Crath's helmet as the fighters unleashed missiles. Realizing that they were meant for him, he unbuckled and scrambled out of the turret before jumping to the ground. He had taken maybe a dozen paces before the Hanshur _rocked_ as the missile smashed into the kinetic barriers and detonated, the suspension groaning.

Then the vehicle exploded in a blinding green explosion. Crath grunted in pain as heat and pressure washed over him, blisters forming on his skin as shrapnel flew through the air. He vaguely heard a meaty _thud_ and fell to the ground as fire erupted near his kneecap, he went to clutch his leg and found that from just below the kneecap down was missing.

The scream of pain that left his lips at the sight of the wound was completely and utterly alien to him as he desperately tried to staunch the bleeding from the wound.

Sadly his scream was merely one of dozens that was going up from the remains of the firebase that was bathed in the light of burning vehicles and the inferno that was quickly consuming what little remained of Arcton Fortress.

* * *

 **0148 Hours, January 23rd, 2667 (Military Calendar)**

 **In orbit of Planet Vibburn**

 **Onboard HLANFS** _ **Eeluram**_

"What do you mean that we're under attack?!" Rear Admiral Dako Brak'parok asked in an alarmed tone.

"That's the thing sir, Acrton Fortress has gone completely dark and Tortmain Fortress managed to get a garbled message out about 'ships dropping out of slipspace in atmosphere' before we lost it. All further attempts to raise Tortmain have failed." Dako's Flag Captain, Akemo Kanfehal responded sounding befuddled as well.

"Sir! One of our ODPs is reporting that they are seeing multiple plasma detonations from orbit. Blora emergency services has just gone apeshit, multiple squadrons of aircraft as well as a gunship just blew the shit out of the local garrison and are now hitting the communication complexes and are moving towards the starport. Oh no, sir! Red Banner Citadel is reporting that they are under attack from an enemy starship, its hitting them lasers and plasma bolts!" A comms tech shouted in alarm.

The bridge went silent as that information sank in, they were under attack by unknown forces. Most likely Covenant Remnant forces were the culprit for the attacks. But why? Why would they target Vibburn, to his knowledge there was nothing of value here. So what was their reasoning for this attack, was it that some group had just decided to hit the Hegemony for the hell of it?

Dako's eyes widened as he realized why the Covenant Remnant might be attacking. Some of the Remnant factions wished to continue the Human-Covenant War despite it being long since over, they would strike Traverse Colonies and Merchants. One of them had to have learned about the slave raid and saw it as an opportunity to kill humans while also dealing a major blow to the slave trade. That was completely unacceptable.

"Frigate squadrons one through four, head downstairs and destroy our uninvited guests. All other fleet units go to Condition One, I want fighters on standby and all other ships ready to provide search and rescue aid." Dako ordered firmly as he came to his decision.

Amber emergency lights started flashing and the klaxon alarm wailed as the tactical hologram went live. The selected frigate squadrons were already coming about so they could enter atmosphere. In the meantime the great Super-Dreadnought rumbled into life like the great beast of war that it was.

"Sir, I am getting a message from one of the orbital stations. They are picking up multiple pings below the orbital grid." A comms officer said suddenly.

"What the hell? The comm buoys are dropping off my scopes!" A sensor officer called out as on the tac hologram the dull grey comm buoys began winking off.

" _Warning, slipspace rupture detected, slipspace rupture detected, slipspace rupture detected, slipspace rupture detected, slipspace rupture detected._ " The onboard VI began announcing in its even tone as the tactical hologram updated again and revealed over a dozen contacts in low orbit, their weapons were hot and glowing menacingly with vivid energies.

"Contacts, multiple enemy contacts! One _CPV_ class Heavy Destroyer and eleven gunships, wait, the Heavy Destroyer is launching fighters! She's opening fire with her fore chase batteries!" A sensor officer called out in shock and fear.

On the tac hologram, Lances of red fire along with blue-yellow teardrops of vibrant energy leaped from the Heavy Destroyer's prow along with stuttering cyan flashes from the lasers while the laterally placed plasma torpedo silos began to glow as they prepared to fire. While the gunships let rip with their own weaponry, lances of green fire streaked away from their flanks along with cyan flashes as the lasers discharged their beams invisible in the void.

Orbital defense platform three through six simply broke apart under the hammering bombardment as they desperately tried to swing around to bring their weapons to bear. Armor vaporized while kinetic barriers glittered then failed allowing plasma to ravage the stations.

Orbital Defense Station One didn't fare much better under the onslaught. Compartment after compartment was laid open by the pulse lasers as they sliced through the thick ablative armor, outer hull, armor belt, and pressure hull with horrifying ease. Plumes of white atmosphere gushed out of the open wounds while the kinetic barriers glowed as they repelled fingers and lances of the energy, the exterior hull began glowing and boiling from the sheer heat.

The station was rotating slowly, in a desperate bid to bring its weapons to bear against its attackers when its kinetic barriers failed and great sections of the station boiled away as more plasma impacted. Internal atmosphere ignited and detonations chained through the structure due to the intense heat of the plasma eating away at the station's armor and interior skeleton.

One of the secondary batteries got a shot off, the shells crashed against the shields then the battery was silenced by lasers. Moments later a large internal explosion ravaged the station and obviously the commanding officer realized that the station was starting to come apart as more explosions ripped through the structure for escape pods started detaching from it. While the station continued to die, more detonations blossoming through its interior as the rotational velocity that the station had put on in order to bring its weapons to bear became its worst enemy.

Eight bolts of crimson hellfire easily a dozen meters across launched from the _CPV_ class and streaked across the void of space. One of the frigate squadrons that had originally been sent to clear out the Remnant forces that were in-atmosphere scattered, but the torpedoes tracked them with horrifying ease while the broadside lasers opened fire on another squadron.

Almost immediately two frigates went ballistic hurtling upwards out of the battlezone as lasers annihilated the vessel's Command Information Center. Another frigate turned to try and bring its broadside GUARDIAN anti-ship laser cannons to bear, only to get brutally savaged by lasers, within moments the vessel had most of its compartments open to space before a large explosion bloomed in a brief eye-searing flash that tore the vessel in two. A fourth frigate took a salvo of energy beams that sliced through armor and hull like it wasn't their and detonated the ship's torpedo magazine causing the vessel to shatter into trillions of pieces.

Then the squadron targeted by the plasma torpedoes started to die, blazing hellfire comets impacted against kinetic barriers which almost immediately failed due to the incredible heat of the weapons, allowing the lethal plasma boil great swaths of hull away. Atmosphere and magazines detonated simply ripping ships apart.

Dako stared at the slaughter that was happening onscreen, already frigate squadrons one and four were completely gone with frigate squadrons two and three taking extremely heavy casualties as the Remnant ships attacked multiple points in orbit, while the orbital defenses attempted to mount some sort of defense but all they seemed to be doing was dying.

He tightened his fist. "Surviving frigates in squadrons two and three fallback immediately! Destroyer squadrons one and three as well as Cruiser divisions three and five clear out all hostiles below the orbital grid I don't care how you do it, all ships launch fighters!" Dako thundered, he would be damned if he would let a Covenant Remnant burn Vibburn without a fight.

Immediately his orders were answered, from the orbiting Cruiser squadrons a single division of five ships peeled away from their fellows and quickly got into combat formation, quickly forming a protective screen around them was fourteen destroyers. The massively powerful seven-hundred meter long warships would have the capability to utterly wreck those destroyers and their gunship friends with the firepower offered by the five hundred meter long destroyers was just icing on the cake.

The ships opened fire with their GUARDIAN anti-ship batteries and torpedo launchers, invisible beams of light burst streaked across the void and caused the enemy shields to flash and flicker as the energy struck. The torpedoes however were engaged by enemy point-defenses almost immediately and began dying in flashes of light as beams cored through them.

Dako growled as he spotted the problem, too many laser batteries and not enough torpedoes and the formation commanders knew it. They intensified their laser fire but the admiral sighed as he knew that they wouldn't be able to breach those shields quickly, not without their mass accelerators but they couldn't engage with those because any shot that missed would hit the planet and cause major collateral damage.

"Sir, HIGHCOM is under heavy Remnant attack!" A comms officer shouted in surprise.

Dako's blood froze, the enemy seemed to be everywhere at once. Those damn _CPV_ class Heavy Destroyers and their gunship escorts along with their aerospace fighters meant that sending units downstairs to help the ground pounders was out of the question. But how the hell were they already attacking HIGHCOM, had those ships launched dropships that he hadn't seen or had the ships already in atmosphere done so? Regardless, this was bad, very _very_ bad. "Do we have a commlink?" he demanded.

"Yessir we do!" The comms tech replied.

"Put it on." Dako ordered, he wanted to get an idea of the situation groundside.

The speakers squealed briefly before the voice of a Hegemony army trooper came over them, the roar of gunfire and plasma weaponry along with the bone-chilling howls and whines of enemy vehicles dominated the background, along with the screams of the wounded and dying. " _-ne that can hear this! We're under attack by enemy ground forces! They got air support, fast attack sleds, infantry, and commandos; we need immed-_ " a large explosion sounded over the speakers and the intensity of the gunfire dropped considerably and the talker started running as the sounds of pounding boots became audible. " _Edos! They've just breached the perimeter, we're under fire from enemy artillery! Mayday mayday mayday, this is Camp Hingham, the enemy has completely overrun the second line of defense and the third line is falling apart. All surviving combat personnel are pulling back to the armory and command ce-_ " The crashing thunder of concrete splintering and composites shattering filled the air, the talker along with several other soldiers screamed in terror as a pair of deep booming echoing roars dominated the freq followed by a low-pitched but powerful _thrum_ as a weapon of some sort fired, the screams of terror turned to screams of agony and then the commlink mercifully went dead amid faint terror-filled bellows of " _SHOOT IT!_ "

Dako wet himself at the sound while more than one sailor on the bridge yelled something incoherent in fright and two of the bridge guards dropped their rifles in shock. What the hell had made that sound?

He shook himself. "Get HIGHCOM back!" he ordered.

"I am trying sir, but I am not getting a response. They're gone, if I remember order of succession, your next sir for defense of the planet." Comms replied dreadfully.

A near absolute zero lump formed in the pit of Dako's stomach. He knew it was true despite the fact that he didn't want to believe it, with the loss of HIGHCOM along with likely everyone there, it meant he was now in command of all Hegemony military forces both in-orbit and on the surface of Vibburn. He took a deep breath as he contemplated his next set of orders.

"Comms, get me a link to all remaining ground forces, I want a status report from every single base, airforce, army, and wet navy force we have on-world." Dako ordered firmly. "All exo ships, assume formation alpha-niner. Cruiser divisions three and five and destroyer squadrons one and two remain on your current duties, kill those damned _CPV_ class Heavy Destroyers and gunships!"

His ship rumbled to life as the Hegemony fleet began to reorganize themselves. Then the tac hologram pinged and the VI again announced the bad news in its flat uncaring voice. " _Warning, slipspace rupture detected, slipspace rupture detected, slipspace rupture detected._ "

The lump in Dako's stomach vanished as the bottom dropped out of it, going into freefall as his heart skipped several beats in fear while a cold sweat formed on his brow as the tactical hologram updated. Two more _CPV_ class Heavy Destroyers had dropped out of slipspace along with an _OAS_ class Super Assault Carrier.

He whispered in a horse voice, so low that only the mic that was attached to his armor picked it up. "This is gonna end _so_ badly."

* * *

 **CODEX - Weapons - Plasma Turret -** At a distance capable of being mistaken for a Pulse Laser turret on Covenant Remnant, Doasic Kingdom, and Sangheili Empire warships. The plasma turret is instead a much more lethal weapon than the Pulse Laser. Being in many ways it's similar to the Energy Projector with the most notable being firing method but it's actually different in both function and form. Regarded by many within the UNSC as a weapon that's a stepping stone between the Plasma Torpedo and Energy Projector. It was initially thought that shots from Plasma Torpedo Silos and Plasma Turrets were the same weapon due to the Crimson color that both weapons shared. However after discovering that Plasma Torpedoes had a physical component, the shots fired by Plasma Turrets became known as Energy Torpedoes.

They fire a teardrop shaped lance of plasma that was considerably longer than a plasma torpedo and their guidance capabilities aren't as accurate or comprehensive than plasma torpedoes but they aren't dumbfire weapons like plasma cannons, another aspect is that they hit much harder than plasma torpedoes often producing damage where the plating around the impact point having been boiled away and out beyond that impulse shock and even crumpling of plating being fairly prominent in a radius often extending out to fifty or more meters with the tendency to not so much melt compartments but to cause them to explosively vaporize, but due to this method of damage it can't extend as deep into a ship as damage from plasma torpedoes can but it's similar to the damage dealt by energy projectors, if the ship survives the hit from such a weapon.


	17. Wrath of the Sangheili Part Two

**AN:** Alright, so the Batarians are in shitloads of trouble. Against the force they have the displeasure of fighting they are quite simply outgunned, it doesn't help that they have effectively been outmaneuvered.

Also to all my readers who are Indian or Hindu, I am sorry about the foul-up last chapter it's fixed now but regardless my deepest apologies.

For those curious HLANFS means Hegemony Liberation Army Navy Fighting Ship

* * *

 **0158 Hours, January 23rd, 2667 (Military Calendar)**

 **In orbit of Planet Vibburn**

 **Onboard the HLANFS** _ **Eeluran**_

"Admiral orders!" Someone shouted, but Admiral Dako didn't hear it. He was too busy trying to get over the fact that everyone in orbit was likely going to die.

"Picking up beta particle spikes! The enemy is preparing to fire plasma!" A sensor officer shouted.

"What are our orders Admiral?"

More calls and cries for orders went up as Dako tried to think of _something_ , _anything_ that they could do to beat back the enemy. But he kept on drawing a blank on the matter.

Someone grabbed him and shook him by the shoulders. "ADMIRAL, YOUR NEEDED RIGHT NOW!" someone bellowed at him and Dako shook himself, finding the sharp, intense eyes of his flag captain.

He sneered at the man, making a mental note to punish him later but nodded. "All ships listen up. All Cruiser squadrons save Cruiser Divisions three and five and nine along with destroyer squadrons two and four through eight as well as frigate squadrons five through twelve commence bombardment of the hostile destroyers to our front. Cruiser division nine, destroyer squadrons nine and ten, and frigate squadrons thirteen and fourteen try and do something about the Super Assault Carrier on our flanks. Cruiser Divisions three and five as well as destroyer squadrons one and three plus the remains of frigate squadron two your going to kill the hostile ships that are below the orbital grid. Frigate Squadron three, if this goes sideways you're to FTL out of here and gather a counterforce. All fighter squadrons engage enemy fighter squadrons, all bomber squadrons the moment we drop shields on an enemy ship attack." Dako ordered sharply before pausing for a brief moment. "All units execute." he finished.

Immediately, his order was followed. The various squadrons and divisions began their maneuvers, formations splitting and reforming with surprising ease and grace. The _Eeluran_ maneuvered like the champion of the void that she was, her powerful sensors sending out waves of energy that quickly painted the target.

"Range to target?" Dako questioned.

"285-megameters and closing we have a firing solution. Sir beta particle spikes are increasing; detecting FCS signals from the enemy ships." The gunnery chief said.

"All ships commence firing." Dako ordered grimly, he knew that there was only one way that this would end.

"Commencing fire aye sir." The gunnery chief replied.

The GUARDIAN I laser mounts that could bear discharged, red stabs of light flashed as the chase batteries fired sending invisible beams of energy at lightspeed towards their target. On-screen additional ships fired their own fore chase laser batteries, sending light beams containing trillions of joules streaking towards their target, the enemy shields flared and flashed into existence as they effortlessly replied the energy beams.

"Final checks complete, spinal batteries commencing fire!" Someone in the gunnery team shouted. A few moments later the deck rumbled as one of the four spinal guns that the Super-Dreadnought was armed and fired, throwing a projectile weighing 7-metric tons at 35,000-km/s. It red-shifted away from the _Eeluran_ and flew across the void. Upon impact, the shield of the Heavy Destroyer flared as it repelled just over a gigaton of destructive force with contemptuous ease.

The other ships opened fire, triple and double digit megaton energy bursts blossoming against the shields of the Heavy Destroyers, which held stubbornly firm. The _Eeluran_ fired again, another gigaton worth of kinetic energy was sent hurtling towards one of the destroyers.

The two _CPV_ class fired their emergency thrusters and split. Dako paled as he spotted what appeared to be a frothing maelstrom of energy beginning to form on as well as _under_ the prow of the enemy ships as they charged their energy projectors. He could hear the gunnery team frantically working to get a new firing solution for the spinal battery.

Then the Heavy Destroyers returned fire at the 220-megameter line, the prow-mounted ventral energy projectors flashed first. Twin beams of blue-silver brilliance that was brighter than the local sun streaked across space, two of the battleships were hit with devastating results.

Both ships had the relativistic plasma beams punch through the kinetic barriers like they hot knife through butter, followed immediately by the 6-meters of ablative armor, the 1.5-meter thick outer hull, 4-meters of interior armor, and the 2-meter thick pressure hull were all sliced through with horrifying ease as if all of that material simply didn't exist. The Superheavy Excavation beam had proven effective against UNSC ships numerous times during the Human-Covenant War and this time was no different, a thirty-five meter wide swath of annihilation was drilled into each Battleship.

A considerable fraction of each ship's mass was simply reduced to vapors.

Explosions rippled through the ships as catastrophic hull breaches cascaded through the vessels faster than Kinetic Barriers or physical emergency bulkheads could stop them, while bulkheads that _hadn't_ been breached by the beams failed as internal explosions from ignited atmosphere rent them apart. It was simply put, a spiraling series of events that even the vaunted damage control systems on UNSC warships would have trouble stopping. Both of the ships that had been struck fell out of formation, explosions convulsing their forms as they simply broke apart in wide glittering arcs.

The Heavy Destroyers weren't done yet however, for they then fired their dual spinal energy projectors, four more lethal beams of relativistic plasma "shrieked" across the void, the other two battleships and both dreadnoughts were speared by beams that were insatiably bright. One dreadnought outright blew up in an ezero core breach immediately while one battleship vanished in the blazing fury of a fusion bottle blowing, the other two ships died slower and seemingly more violent deaths, breaking up with horrifying slowness. Internal explosions blooming within those ships as they fragmented, tearing themselves asunder in a horrifying display that dumped hundreds of tiny forms into the cruel, unforgiving vacuum of space.

In an instant almost the entirety of the heavy firepower that Dako had at his disposal had vanished. His hands shook as he glanced at the screen and gulped as he realized just how poorly this was going. The force he had sent to intercept the Super Assault Carrier was being ripped to shreds by that monster's vast weaponry, already Destroyer Squadron One had lost seven out of ten ships, while Destroyer Squadron Three had lost half of its strength, several Cruisers were already down and if the way that baleful red was glowing from the lateral lines, plasma torpedoes were about to start flying.

" _Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Admiral, this is Frigate Squadron Three; we're under attack from enemy fighters!_ " A voice, panicked and sounding desperate cuts through Dako's fear and sorrow like a knife.

Dako glanced at the screen and grimaced, Remnant _Seraph_ fighters were swarming around the surviving frigates and hammering them mercilessly with their pulse lasers, heavy plasma cannons, and he swore that he saw the occasional fuel rod round in the mix. The pulse lasers weren't penetrating the ablative armor, but the plasma and fuel rods were causing the rapidly maneuvering frigates to leave a trail of vaporized ablative armor in their wake as they spat laser fire.

One _Seraph_ blew up as the GUARDIANs finally wore down the shields and punched through its plasma reactor, instantly immolating the fighter in a searing flash.

Brief slipspace ruptures occurred and six Remnant gunships joined the fray, their heavier weaponry proved to problematic for the frigates immediately. One of the three remaining frigates took multiple hits from the plasma lances that the gunships mounted on their broadside, the first salvo splashed across kinetic barriers and caused significant amounts of ablative armor to vaporize and portions of the exterior hull to start glowing red and orange. Then the barriers failed, moments later a second salvo of energy from that gunship streaks across space, the crackling electric green bolts of fire splash across armor.

That armor boils away, almost immediately afterwards the hull breaches and a tremendous of plume of white gas billows from the frigate and knocks it sideways. The _Seraphs_ pounce immediately, hammering the unshielded frigate with plasma, lasers, and fuel rods. The lasers remain mostly ineffective, but the plasma and fuel rods begin punching craters into the armor and breaching the hull.

Another salvo of plasma lances crash into the ship and it vanishes in a single searing pulse of light and radiation as the magnetic containment for antiproton storage fails. Moments after that, another frigate shatters into a thousand pieces amid a torpedo magazine detonation. While the last frigate is simply burning after taking multiple plasma lances, its motion a simple ballistic arc as it had no helm control.

Dako snarled a particularly foul curse when the last frigate died, moments later the spinal mass accelerator started firing again. Not that it mattered, the hastily put together battle plan that he had come up with for defending Vibburn was rapidly falling apart. The lateral lines and chase plasma turrets on the destroyers to his front were starting to glow a hellish red and cyan light strobbed.

Dako stiffened when he heard an audible _pop_ run through the compartment and he _knew_ that the _Eeluran_ had just been hit by pulse lasers. "All ships engaging the destroyers to our front, launch torpedoes." he ordered even as more pops rang through the hull and to his dismay the displayed battlespace on the tactical hologram shrunk by half.

"Ablative armor down to three meters across multiple sections, lidar dish and primary battlenet antenna array destroyed!" A bridge officer shouted in alarm.

 _Ah, that explains it._ Dako thought, the primary battlenet antenna being destroyed would severely limit the amount of information that they could transmit and receive to the battlenet.

A series of rapid fire thumps rang through the hull and dozens of silvery objects each thirty-meters long are hurled out of tubes, have antimatter drives ignite and then accelerate the warheads, joining the shells and GUARDIAN beams that are flying around.

There was seemingly a pause in the amount of laser fire coming from the alien warships. Then they opened fire again and torpedoes started dying as the pulse lasers used their faster firing rapid-tracking mode to kill the incoming missiles. Their networked point-defenses were slaughtering the torpedoes, Dako could tell that they would be lucky to have more than two or three torpedoes slip through the maelstrom of invisible light.

"Enemy missile separation!" someone on the bridge shouted as each enemy destroyer fired no less than _ten_ plasma torpedoes, followed by their eight fore chase plasma turrets discharging. It looked like a tidal wave of energy was screaming towards them. The hostile lasers flashed again and more pops rang through the _Eeluran_.

"All ships break formation and take evasive action, bombers I know that the shields aren't down yet on those destroyers but make your runs now, if you can down those shields then we might be able to kill at least one ship." Dako orders.

"Aye-sir, taking evasive action." The helmsman said and the great Super-Dreadnought's engines flared and the ship broke formation, the other vessels scattering as they accelerated and turned. The bombardment from the pulse lasers continued, the ringing series of _pops_ being almost constant now.

"Broadside batteries, fire as they bear! Countermeasures standby!" Dako thunders as the immense warship slews around and starts accelerating, shudders ran through the deck as the broadside mounts began discharging, the destroyer-class mass accelerators throwing shells downrange to impact with the force of 23-megatons.

On the battlenet, more plasma was already flying about, the massive carrier had just launched forty lethal plasma torpedoes and its fore chase plasma turrets were discharging which resulted in another lethal avalanche of hellfire. Just as something similar happened to the force to their rear, another salvo of plasma launched towards the cruisers there.

With multiple avalanches of energy closing in on them and forcing them scatter. The Batarians were in a bad position, but what doomed fleet was when four more ships joined the fray in the midst of a scattering Cruiser Division, two seperate Batarian Cruisers simply crumpled as they got hit by ships with energy shields up dropping out of slipspace. Weapons fire split the void and several Cruisers had their kinetic barriers flare and glow before failing, plasma weaponry promptly tore great wounds into hulls.

The advanced guidance systems onboard the plasma torpedoes and the somewhat less advanced ship-based systems that the plasma rounds fired by the plasma turrets used meant that the Remnant ships in their midst weren't hit. But the Batarian ships were hit.

The _Eeluran_ rocked _hard_ as the immense vessel took a direct hit from a plasma round that crashed against her kinetic barriers like the fist of an angry god. The amount of kinetic energy involved due to the extremely high velocity of the shot caused said barriers to collapse. Some plasma managed to splash against the hull, the immense heat boiling away a large swath of ablative armor and causing the outer hull to breach, multiple broadside mounts were reduced to molten slag. Trailing behind the plasma turret round by a considerable distance came a pair of plasma torpedoes, glowing like fiery dogs of hell.

Upon detection and confirmation of the incoming, the _Eeluran_ launched countermeasures. They were rectangular prism shaped objects that were roughly fifteen meters long and six meters tall and wide. Once deployed into space, thrusters imparted more velocity into them as their reactors powered up and they began transmitting a bevity of signals designed to fool the guidance systems of torpedoes that were used by the various Citadel races.

Against plasma torpedoes however, those countermeasure systems were useless. They promptly ignored the countermeasures and barrelled straight towards the immense Super-Dreadnought. The GUARDIAN batteries discharged at the lethal missiles in a series of stuttering red flashes. During the Human-Covenant War, plasma torpedoes had proven to be nearly impossible to shoot down with lasers and that fact was proven here.

The massive cylindrical form of the Hegemony Super-Dread with a vague tuning fork like bow swung hard into the incoming torpedoes and began to accelerate forwards. The plasma torpedoes adjusted their course and increased their velocity as they entered their terminal stage of flight. More GUARDIAN laser pulses invisible in the void tried to swat them out of the sky to no-avail. The two lethal weapons impacted within seconds of each other with catastrophic results.

The _Eeluran_ cracked and burned as the plasma impacted with incredible force, the various layers of protection did nothing for the plasma torpedoes had considerably more mass than plasma lances or plasma rounds, which combined with their momentum allowed them to burn deep into the Super-Dreadnought even as the magnetic bottle containing the plasma blew while the plasma bursting charge detonated.

Admiral Dako groaned as he got back to his feet as the deck shook and quivered, the temperature had spiked considerably as well, numerous conduits were down as well. "Damage report!" he snarled.

"We're holed, decks five and six, sections ten through fifteen and twenty through twenty-eight. We got multiple plasma fires burning through us, most of the forward broadside mounts on the portside have been slagged." A DAMCON officer shouted.

Dako frowned when he didn't hear his Flag Captain bark out the orders to contain that damage. He looked around CIC and he _thought_ that he saw the man's corpse, crushed under a beam. That caused him to swear softly. "Give all personnel within the affected sections thirty seconds to evacuate and then seal them off and vent the atmosphere." he ordered before glancing at the tac monitor and he grimaced.

Most of the ships were flashing heavy damage from the tidal wave of plasma that had just crashed into his fleet. With the exception of the force that was tangling with the Super Assault Carrier which was getting torn apart, most of the ships fighting _that_ monster were already down and the few that remained were reporting critical damage. Of course then there was those four warships that were running riot among his frigates and destroyers, the fact that they had gunships and attack craft supporting them wasn't helping matters.

The _Eeluran_ shook as a series of ringing _pops_ from more pulse laser hits sang through CIC. Dako knew that it was hopeless, he was tempted to cut his losses and run but that would leave nearly a hundred million people plus several million slaves at the not so tender mercies of the Covenant Remnant. Moments later a series of muffled thumps rang through the super-dreadnought and the DAMCON officer spoke up. "Atmosphere vented, plasma fires dying out."

"Sir, we're being painted by an enemy warship! Energy projector charging!" Someone shouted at him.

"Present our broadside, that will limit the damage! Return fire with all broadside mounts that can bear." He ordered and the _Eeluran_ swung about trying to come about to present the narrowest profile possible.

The great warship didn't make succeed in completing the turn. A lance of blue-white energy that sported a silver tint, brighter than the local star swept through space and speared the warship halfway through her turn. With effortless ease the beam cut through the ship at a fifty-degree angle, carving a twenty-meter wide swath through the ship. Explosions chained up and down its length as bulkheads blew in and atmosphere either escaped or ignited, the strain became too much for the ship and it snapped in twain like a mere twig. Moments later the stern vanishes in the blazing flash of a fusion bottle blowing.

The other Batarian ships, the chain of command for their fleet in so many pieces, were helpless as they tried to reorganize themselves in order to mount a defense. The onslaught of pulse lasers, plasma lances, plasma pulses, plasma rounds, plasma torpedoes, and energy projector shots that the Remnant was unleashing against the Batarians didn't let up. For what it was worth the remaining ships that the Batarians had in orbit died fighting even though many were severely damaged or crippled.

But they had been out-maneuvered and where horrifically out-gunned. Thus frigates and destroyers died left and right while the Cruisers had their numbers thinned out one-by-one. Thirty minutes after the destruction of the _Eeluran_ , the last Batarian ship died with a whimper as the strain became too much for its frame to handle and the vessel broke apart in a glittering arc of debris.

* * *

 **0305 Hours, January 23rd, 2667 (Military Calendar)**

 **In orbit of Vibburn**

 **Onboard the** _ **Shadow of Intent**_

"Enemy fleet destroyed!" A sensor officer announced as the last Batarian Cruiser died as a salvo of plasma lances and pulse lasers combined with a particularly high gee turn caused the vessel to disintegrate.

Thel 'Vadam snorted, this hadn't been a battle at all. If anything, it reminded him about some of the slaughters that had occurred at the start of the Human-Covenant War, except even that wasn't an apt comparison. Even during those early battles, he knew that the UNSC usually acquitted themselves well despite often times being wiped out to a man. The showing that the Batarians had put on however was rather pathetic.

"Move us into position, commence ground operations." Thel ordered sharply.

"Yes Arbiter." the helmsman said before tapping in commands, the massive _Shadow of Intent_ rumbled, her immense bulk came about with an amount of grace that didn't seem possible for a ship the size of the Super Assault Carrier and proceeded to accelerate towards the planet.

Deep within the mighty warship, hundreds nay thousands of warriors, a mixture of Sangheili, Unggoy, T'vaoans, and Mgalekgolo raced to their dropships and drop pods. They were all eager to perform their duty, to descend to the planet's surface and meet the enemy head-on while freeing as many captives as possible from captivity.

* * *

 **0315 Hours, January 23rd, 2667 (Military Calendar)**

 **Enroute to the Auction District of Harr'mae City, Planet Vibburn**

 **Sergeant Cemak Pep'sodor, Terror MBT**

Cemak swore as he heard the orders over the command net, it wasn't good. The fleet had apparently been wiped out along with the orbital grid, the observation posts that hadn't been hit yet had spotted dozens if not hundreds of re-entry tracks. They weren't sure what was the composition of the inbound force was, but it was assumed to be rather heavy.

Not that he was concerned with that, his Terror MBT had the armor to go head-to-head with almost anything and its main gun was a terrifying thing. Trailing behind his vehicle was twelve more Terror MBTs and about twice that number of Strike Tanks. Regardless, nobody knew how the Terrors would hold up against Remnant Tanks. It was a known fact that UNSC Tanks had done fairly well against them, but they had still suffered major losses.

" _All units, eyes up. Multiple Phantoms inbound, looks like they got a few Liches too._ " the overall unit commander said over the command freq.

"Any of them carrying tanks?" Cemak asked as he eyed the fiery streaks that were tearing in at an incredible rate.

" _At least twenty phantoms are carrying tanks, unknown if they got a plasma mortar or a particle cannon for armament, but given how our luck has been thus far it's probably a combination of the two. Most of them are heading to the warehouse and auction districts, several are headed elsewhere._ " the unit commander replied in a curt and tight voice.

Cemak swore softly, the enemy craft were now becoming visible and just from the way that they moved, he got the impression that they weren't messing around. Occasionally bolts of yellow-blue fire rained down from the dropships as gunfire crackled and popped sending blue tracers upwards that sparkled upon unyielding energy shields. But there was a distinct lack of SAMs, given the general pasting that the enemy had given them it wasn't surprising.

Several of them peeled away from the main group and moved to intercept them, their engines thrummed subtly with power as they swept in. Slowly they descended till they were out of sight past an overpass that Cemak knew that his tanks would have to cross in order to engage the enemy. Which meant that the only way to his position was through those Remnant tanks, didn't seem too difficult. Hell, Cemak mused this was going to be a piece of cake to borrow a human expression.

"All tanks advance, we shall blast our way past the Remnant forces on the overpass ahead and continue with our mission to provide armor support to the forces in the auction district." Cemak said and with a roar of engines the formation advanced, treads clacking and squeaking as they moved.

In the distance, Cemak could faintly hear the whine of energy weapons dueling with the sounds of mass effect weaponry. He knew that his tanks were desperately needed to help hold off the energy shielded heavy infantry that the Remnants preferred to use as their shock troopers. Then he heard a ghostly howl and from the opposite side of the overpass clawing higher into the air as it streaked towards them came a pair of glowing blue-white projectiles that were as wide as a man were tall.

All four of Cemak's eyes widened as he realized what the projectile was. "All units scatter! Scatter!" he shouted as the plasma mortar shots streaked in.

" _Hang-on!_ " The driver shouted before applying left stick and the tank pivoted to the right as the left track ceased its motion but the right track continued moving as the engine roared. The plasma bombs howled in, Cemak could feel the heat building through his hardsuit even though it was equipped with life support systems that were supposed to keep him cool. His visor went to maximum polarization as the eye-searing comet streaked in.

They hit the ground and exploded, the shockwave punted his tank several meters as if it weighed nothing, a dozen secondaries cooked off immediately after the plasma detonation like blast packs. Cemak looked over his shoulder and paled as he saw that three Terrors were in varying states of destruction as were at nearly half of the Strike Tanks, more disconcerting however was that _at least_ four Strike Tanks had been outright vaporized. To make matters worse his force had effectively been cut in half by the two large craters that glowed a dull red indicating the incredible heat that the bombs had generated upon detonation, as far as he could tell all of his Terror MBTs were on his side of the crater but only one Strike Tank was, worse not all of the Terrors were operational.

"All tanks, listen up for new orders. If your on the wrong side of the craters try and find an alternate route, if your not follow my tank into battle. Driver advance." Cemak ordered and his machine lurched into motion with a thundering roar, the machines that could quickly following him and picking up speed.

Two more plasma mortar rounds rose into the night sky, shining like luminous stars. The commander of the tank behind him swore vividly as he spotted the plasma bombs, a sentiment that the others quickly voiced. "Maintain discipline, driver floor it! Out run those things!" Cemak snarled almost immediately his tank bounded forwards as its engine unleashed a throaty howl, continuing to accelerate as the energy rounds screamed in.

Somehow they managed to outrun the plasma shots and they detonated behind them, tearing two more great wounds into the ground and despite that they continued advancing and Cemak knew that they would succeed in getting under the guns of those mortar tanks. His tank just began to crest the overpass when he saw them.

The enemy tanks were based upon the Wraith chassis with a vague beetle like appearance and silver, black, and red armor that glinted menacingly in the harsh light that was cast by the blue-white glow of recycling plasma mortars.

"Gunner target tank, traverse right two degrees and engage at will!" Cemak thundered as he eyed the tank.

The turret traversed until the main gun was pointing at the tank. " _Target acquired!_ "

"Fire!" Cemak bellowed in response.

" _On the way!_ " His gunner shouted and the 130mm Combination Gun discharged, a deep booming thunderclap that was part premixed binary liquid propellant cannon and part mass accelerator cannon. The full caliber tungsten carbide penetrator flew out of barrel and shattered upon energy shielding, sending rippling will o' wisps fluttering across the vehicle's form.

 _Shit not good._ "Hit'em again! Pump him! Pump him!" Cemak shouted as the other tanks engaged, the deep thunderclap of main guns filled the air. His own tank fired twice in rapid succession, he could hear the loader working frantically to keep a steady supply of shells fed to the four round clip.

One of the enemy tanks returned fire, a dazzling purple bolt of energy caught one of the Terror's square in its flat-faced frontal glacis, there wasn't even a flicker from the kinetic barriers but the shot drilled through the layers of composites, ceramics, and metals like butter. Fire jetted from the wound and from the small gap between the turret and hull as well as the hatches with a great rushing roar that seemed to fill the air as the tank brewed up into an inferno.

Moments later, another searing bolt of purple energy cored the remaining Strike Tank and caused the vehicle to outright blow up, throwing its turret high in the air as if it had been kicked by an enraged giant.

Cemak whooped as the shields on one enemy tank failed, then his tank roared its challenge and the shot slammed into its target and amid a scream of alien armor went straight in. Immediately the tank lurched to a halt and its gravity drive began sputtering before it suddenly failed, moments later with mind-numbing roar, the tank exploded as its onboard plasma reactor went critical, bathing the area in harsh blue-white light and shattering all windows that were still intact in the immediate area.

Another Terror lurched to a halt, an oblong hole near the engine spewing fire and smoke. But the tank wasn't out of the fight yet, for its gunner emptied the clip into the Wraith responsible. The first two broke upon the shields but broke them in return, the third one bounced off the armor with an ear-splitting _ba-raaaam_ , and the fourth went straight in. Fire belched from the penetration and hatches as the gravity drive failed sending the machine crashing to the ground.

Cemak for his part swore when a particle bolt barely missed his tank. "Target acquired!" his gunner shouted as the turret came about and pointed at the Wraith responsible.

"Fire!"

" _On the way!_ " The main gun roared and the shell impacted with a great flash of energy as the enemy tank's shields struggled to repel the round, regardless the kinetic energy transferred and knocked the Wraith sideways.

"Again!" Cemak snarled as he saw the effects of the first shot.

" _On the way!_ " The gunner cried and the main gun spoke again, the shields broke from the impact of the shell. Before Cemak could yell for another shot, the main gun spoke a third time and the Wraith blew itself apart as the shell punched past the armor and caused the Plasma Reactor to blow.

Another Terror took a direct hit and had a geyser of fire came screaming out of turret as the vehicle jerked to a halt. Moments later part of the overpass blew itself apart as the Mortar Tanks fired and the structure started creaking ominously and jagged cracks appeared in the roadway. The last Particle Cannon armed Wraith shifted into reverse and began to back away along with the other two Covenant vehicles.

"After them, we got to get off this overpass, maintain suppressive fire!" Cemak ordered sharply, immediately his tank pivoted and began accelerating after the Wraiths, the ragged survivors of the fight following him, the coaxial machine gun on the massive machines spitting hate as they did so. But by the time that they had gotten to the bottom of the overpass, which had occurred just as the damned thing collapsed, the enemy tanks had already vanished.

 _Dammit._ Cemak thought bitterly, both at the fact that the remaining enemy tanks were now likely lying in ambush positions somewhere nearby and that he had gone in with ten tanks and came out with five tanks remaining. Of course he suspected that if he had gone in with all of his tanks and in different terrain it likely would've gone differently.

"All tanks advance, we need to get to the auction district!" He snarled even as he heard in the distance the crackle of gunfire, the whine of plasma, and the ghostly wail of plasma mortars.

His tank jerked into motion and it began driving down the highway, the remaining few in tow. There was work that needed to be done.

* * *

 **0335 Hours, January 23rd, 2667 (Military Calendar)**

 **Auction District of Harr'mae City, Planet Vibburn**

 **Private Crarn Kan'kaprak**

With a sharp crackling hiss that only a plasma bolt could produce with a near miss causing Private Crarn to instinctively dive into an alley, he spun and poked out of cover. Advancing towards his position was two formations of ten massive aliens each seven feet tall, their weapons spat blue and green fire in a seemingly indiscriminate pattern, while gliding up behind the intimidating aliens, Sangheili, Crarn realized was a trio of the Remnant's equal to a Force Application Vehicle.

The lethal FAVs had lethal plasma cannons that spat hatred as they swept across positions, tearing great chunks out of instacrete with insane ease. A fellow soldier got hit by one of the cannons and Crarn swore as the plasma bolt punched straight the kinetic barriers and then tore a great chunk out of the man's chest, sending what remained of his left arm flopping to the ground separately from his lifeless corpse.

Crarn snarled as he keyed his Omni-tool and flash-fabbed a tech mine, thumbed the activation switch and flung it at a squad of ten aliens. The explosive force that the device had reduced two aliens to bloody messes and popped the shields of others and sent all of them staggering. Crarn allowed his snarl to turn into a feral grin. His rifle came up and he opened fire with precise bursts, 2mm darts of metal fired at relativistic speeds flew down range.

He quickly dropped four aliens, their heads blown open by rounds as he delivered three-round bursts in rapid succession. His fifth burst went wide due to a bolt of plasma splashing across his kinetic barriers and sending him staggering, regardless the alien howled in pain as the rounds caught it in the chest.

 _Oh shit._ Crarn thought as his actions earned him the ire of the plasma cannon mounted on one of the FAVs. He dove behind the wall as a fullislade of plasma was sent flying towards his position. The energy tore into the opposite wall, molten instacrete dust sprayed as the plasma bolts impacted, covering the ground and hitting him. Even though each plasma bolt was passing him from a distance of several meters, the heat was incredible and beyond description. With a cracking roar the opposite wall fractured and came apart.

Then he heard the sound of splintering and immediately went prone and an instant later the wall he had been hiding behind seemingly _shattered_ in an explosion of molten instacrete dust as well as chunks of the stuff. Crarn yelled in pain and anger as hot dust and heavy pieces of debris fell upon him. In the background he heard more gunfire and what sounded like a grenade launcher going to work. Plasma fire sizzled and crackled in return.

Crarn stood up and crouched along the edge of the gaping wound that had been ripped into the structure by the plasma. The aliens were advancing somewhat cautiously, bounding from cover-to-cover in pairs, providing accurate fire lethal fire while the FAVs provided suppressive fire. Energy shields glittered as rounds impacted, causing aliens to reel when struck. One of the FAVs took a direct hit from a grenade and the resulting blast shredded the front-end of the vehicle and caused its gravity drive to fail, sending it crashing to the ground. Immediately the gunner disembarked from the disabled vehicle but the driver didn't.

Snarling, Crarn brought his weapon up and sighted one of the aliens, then let off a long burst from his weapon, expending the last of his thermal clip, he swapped them out and opened fire again. Sharp bursts sang from his rifle and he managed to drop two aliens before they figured out his position.

One of the aliens leveled a strange weapon at him, it had a fairly long barrel with a curved hump that had a multitude of what could be spikes. The alien fired and purple needles the size of his hand streaked towards him producing a blood-curdling shriek. Seven of them crashed against his kinetic barriers and shattered in puffs of pink, lowering them by three-quarters and triggering an audible alarm.

Crarn ducked instinctively and the next burst slashed through the air right where his upper torso had been located. He fired blindly in retaliation from over his cover and in response plasma flew over him causing the air to crackle and pop from the heat the energy bolts.

" _All units we're pulling back to our next line of defense, acknowledge._ " He heard someone, maybe his platoon commander order.

"I can't pullback, I am pinned down by one of the damned FAVs! If I move, I am going to get decapitated or worse!" Crarn said in a mild panic as another sustained burst of plasma swept overhead.

" _Dammit, someone support Crarn, he's out of position and pinned down._ " His squad leader ordered and Crarn swore he heard a foul curse from someone in his fireteam.

He heard sharp orders and shortly after their was a carphoney of gunfire and the shriek of a rocket. Almost immediately the intensity of the fire slackened and he could hear the aliens saying something in strange tongues. Crarn figured they were pulling back, he flashed-fabbed another tech mine and burst out from behind his cover and hurled the device after arming it before bolting.

As he ran up the street towards the fallback point, he heard the tech mine explode and aliens scream in pain and rage. Plasma and crystalline purple needles flew past him as he serpentined, then something hot smashed into him square between the shoulder blades and he went tumbling to the ground as his shields collapsed and searing pain filled his chest as blisters pricked his skin. He tumbled to the ground and quickly scrambled to his feet and began running in a serpentine pattern again as more energy weapons fire streaked towards him.

The asphalt sprayed molten dust and had cracks spider web through it as the energy crashed into it. He had ran maybe twenty meters when he got hit again and this time he yelled in pain as he went tumbling to the ground as searing pain filled his lower back. But as he clawed back to his feet, throwing another tech mine, Crarn realized as he heard the thing explode that he had gotten lucky. Had that been a plasma cannon shot, it likely would've torn him in two. More gunfire tore down the street and began to suppress the enemy, the distinct sound of an HMG joined them.

 _Come on Crarn!_ _Training was worse than this and your almost to the fallback point._ He could see his squad and after flash-fabbing another tech-mine and throwing it scrambled too them.

"Get on the Ranshur, we're pulling back!" His squad leader snarled as he ran up to them.

Crarn was just beginning to do so when he heard a loud _roar_ somewhere behind him. His squad leader looked back and screamed like a little girl, the rest swore vividly and Crarn spun around. He felt something warm begin to accumulate between his legs, but he didn't notice for strolling down the street seemingly oblivious to the gunfire that the squads that had elected to remain behind were directing at it, came _four_ pairs of monsters.

They were freakishly tall and were clad from head-to-foot in thick armor that reminded him of plate mail armor, one arm had a massive shield and the other arm simply appeared to be one big gun, along their back he could see multiple spines. In the fires that burned he could see color glinting dully, the lead pair of monsters had gold armor with red eyes while the other three had blue armor with green eyes.

"What are those things?" Crarn asked as they advanced forwards.

Suddenly a rocket flew out of a window and shrieked towards the lead monster and he thought that he was about to see one of the monsters killed. The thing pivoted towards the rocket and turtled behind its shield. The rocket impacted and detonated in a fireball that shrouded the monster in fire and smoke.

It trudged from the smoke and fire completely unharmed, however it looked more than a little angry. It brought its weapon to bear on the building that had fired the rocket, the maw of which began to glow a harsh green. Then with a mind-numbing roar that was audible even over the sounds of battle, a scalding lance of boiling green shot forth. It impacted the building and immediately instacrete and composites shattered, the beast swept its massive gun from side-to-side as well as up-and-down creating a wave of the lethal green stuff. The short and squat three-story building seemingly disintegrated as the green light impacted it while flames belched upwards. It had taken maybe five seconds to utterly decimate that building.

What was more disconcerting was that even from here, Crarn could hear the screams of the men who had been in that building. It was really disconcerting, particularly as more gunfire bounced and shattered off the aliens' armor. The aliens let out low but deep roars and went on the attack, within moments beams and rapid-fire bolts of green energy were criss-crossing the ground and cutting down soldiers with ruthless efficiency.

"Come on, we got to get the hell out of here!" someone shouted, the squads that had elected to stay behind were running up the street towards them in a dead panic, at least those who could were. A few were firing as they fled while plasma bolts, purple needles, and more shots from those massive alien cannons giving them more incentive. The lethal energies and rounds cut down numerous soldiers.

"To hell to that, covering fire!" His squad leader snarled when he saw the fleeing soldiers. Immediately rifles started barking hate, sending shards of metal flying down range towards their opponents.

Crarn shook himself and scrambled onto the back of the Ranshur, then swung the HMG around and opened fire, focusing on the aliens. He had to provide covering fire for his fellow soldiers and the massive rounds were flung downrange at c-fractional velocities amid a terrifying roar from the machine gun. Despite the fact that the rounds were smaller and lighter than those used by the UNSC's LAAG-line, they were just as effective as the rounds fired by that weapon series, particularly against soft targets.

The kinetic barrier equipped and decently well armored Unggoy and T'vaoan seemed to fly apart in explosions of flame, gore, shattered armor, and feathers as the heavy slugs punched past the kinetic barriers and armor like they didn't exist. The energy-shielded Sangheili fared better, glittering auras of energy flared into life and the warriors scattered to find cover, although not all were successful as occasionally energy shields failed allowing the heavy slugs to tear apart the enemy. The massive aliens however turtled behind their shields and slowly advanced forwards despite the sheer number of rounds that was sparking and bouncing off of them, the general attitude that they had about the situation was as if they were going for an afternoon walk and not advancing through machine gun and rifle fire.

The lead one raised its weapon arm and a green glow built in its maw for two seconds before the cannon fired. The bolt of green energy shrieked across the kilometer of distance in roughly half a second where upon it slammed into the Ranshur right in the center of its five-man cabin. For the briefest of moments Crarn felt and _heard_ the sound of the vehicle's frame bending _inward_ around the projectile as well as his aim getting knocked askew from it. Then the shot exploded.

Crarn found himself being thrown off the back of the truck as the vehicle blew itself apart as pain swept through him, he flew five meters and hit the ground hard and went tumbling for another two and a half before coming to a stop. There he lay still for several long minutes before showing signs of life.

Groaning he slowly rolled over and tried to stand, ignoring the fiery pain that was clawing through the side of his body that had been facing the detonation, got to his feet. His HUD was a mess and didn't seem to be completely functioning, his rifle and shotgun were gone, leaving him with just his pistol. He pulled it out and began limping away from the Ranshur which was completely unrecognizable and completely engulfed in flames.

Then he swore that the ground fluttered under his feet. He spun around and immediately began back-pedalling. "Oh Edos! Oh Edos! Oh Edos!" he screamed firing his pistol as he saw the massive alien beginning to crest the hill, the rounds pinged off the armor ineffectively.

Without fanfare the beast batted the wrecked Ranshur aside like it weighed nothing, the wreck coming apart before his very eyes as it flew into a store front with an ear-rattling crash. The thing was huge, it towered over him, well over 3.5-meters in height and those armor plates looked like they were incredibly thick. Before he knew what he was doing he was throwing a tech mine at it.

The device caught the beast square in the chest and rocked it back as the mine unleashed a fair amount of explosive force along with a swarm of electronic trash to clutter the HUD as well as localized energy pulse to flatten shields. To his utter shock, he didn't even see the distinct flash of shields failing or even activating. It made him realize with horror that it hadn't been seemingly invincible because it had ludicrously powerful shields that would require exceptionally heavy weapons to down. No, it was because its armor was just _that tough_. Furthering increasing how he felt was how the alien seemed to glare at him in a way that was filled with anger and rage.

Then the beast _moved_ , it charged at him like a rampaging Thresher Maw, moving with a level of speed and what you could call grace that was impossible for a creature its size. Crarn screams in utter terror as he voids himself, backpedaling as his pistol spoke as fast as it could cycle. Rounds bouncing ineffectively off its armor, he might as well have been trying to get to orbit by using a jetpack. It cocked its shield back then struck him with a full-blown shield bash that hit like an out of control freight train.

Crarn flew backwards, landing easily three meters away from the massive alien, most of the bones in his body either broken, fractured, or in the case of his ribcage, completely shattered. To his surprise though, he couldn't feel any pain nor did he lose consciousness, indeed losing consciousness would've been a blessing considering what happened next. The massive alien suddenly loomed over and raised its boot.

Yet while he couldn't scream because of his paralysis due to his wounds, he was very much aware of what was happening when the beast brought its boot down on him.

* * *

 **0345 Hours, January 23rd, 2667 (Military Calendar)**

 **Auction District of Harr'mae City, Planet Vibburn**

 **Mgalekgolo Major Ukayu Xaya Bewo**

 _Disgusting._ The gestalt of Lekgolo worms that was Ukayu Xaya Bewo thought as it stepped away from the body of the Batarian soldier it had just squashed like a bug. Its three-dimensional HUD painted his objective as five kilometers away, a simple walk and the lack of heavy weaponry meant this would be simple.

"Was that really necessary brother?" The 'speech' of his Bond-Brother, Momuru Xaya Wokko asked in a 'tone' that could be considered amused.

"Not even biofoam and a top of the line autodoc would've saved him. It was a mercy." Ukayu replies as more Batarian rifle fire pings harmlessly off his armor. His HUD illuminates with targets, easily a dozen figures who are positioned in the windows of a building that was about one and a half kilometers away were pelting him with assault rifles and only one of them has a weapon that _might_ threaten his armor, a grenade launcher.

Ukayu snorted, he would be more concerned if that was a UNSC Marine Corps squad just because they _always_ had heavy-duty heavy weapons like Jackhammer missiles. He brought his shield to better position and began advancing with no-fear despite the severity of the weapons fire that was being directed his way.

"Overconfident blighters aren't they?" Momuru asked in a disbelieving 'tone'.

"Suicidal more like it." Ukayu rumbled in response as a grenade crashed against his shield with a muted _thud_ then exploded to little effect.

"Probably brother, shall we teach them the folly of their ways?" Momuru asked as bullets pelted his armor and shield to little effect.

"Yes." Ukayu replied before assigning positions and sending orders as he turtled behind his shield, the rifle fire pinging ineffectively off it. He could literally stand here all day and those rounds wouldn't penetrate his armor, let alone his shield.

The other three bond pairs in his unit joined his own bond-pair at the crest of the hill. Almost immediately the amount of gunfire tapered away to nothing as the soldiers divided their fire. Under any other circumstance it would've been a fairly decent decision, but even Demons gawked at fighting four pairs of Mgalekgolo, mainly because if they fought smart then they were unstoppable.

"Advance, on my command halt and engage the building we are receiving fire with Assault Cannons in anti-building mode." Ukayu ordered and then took a plodding step forwards, moments later the rest of the bond pairs took one in unison and they advanced like that in near perfect lock-step, the ground trembling under the advance of multiple Mgalekgolo that each weighed five to six tons in weight stepped calmly through the maelstrom of firepower without fear.

The amount of fire seemingly increased as they advanced and Ukayu found himself admitting that the Batarians certainly had courage, unfortunately the sort of courage that the Batarians were displaying was of the extremely stupid variety. He knew that even Demons would rather do some crazy scheme to destroy a Covenant Cruiser than face four well coordinated Mgalekgolo pairs.

So they walked forth uncaring about the gunfire. "Multiple enemies in the buildings coming up on our flanks, orders?" One of the bond-brothers asked.

Sure enough the motion tracker was showing targets in the buildings that they were nearly parallel with. Ukayu had to admit that those soldiers knew what they were doing and in a galaxy where armor-mounted motion trackers didn't exist, it might have even worked. Too bad for them, it wouldn't.

"Engage the building to our front, then switch anti-infantry mode and engage the flanking ones with infantry!" Ukayu ordered firmly.

Seven other Mgalekgolo rumbled their response seemingly in unison and immediately after a deep _thrum_ filled the air as the assault cannons cycled up, a menacing green glow suffusing the dark streets. Ukayu watched as on his HUD the red outline figures in the building at the head of the street began to scramble away from the windows and the door that was facing them with amusement. They had finally realized their folly. But the gestalt mused, it was too little too late.

Nothing could have lived where the eight streams of high-pressure radioactive incendiary gel impacted and the building for its part withstood the incredibly destructive punishment about as well as could be expected. The building seemingly exploded outwards amind an incredible gout of flame, bits of shattered building, bodies, and parts of bodies charred to unrecognizability flew through the air.

All it took was a mere thought and his assault cannon changed modes. "Engage the others." He ordered.

Screams of shock and alarm filled the air as the Hunters formed a back-to-back formation then ruthlessly strafed the buildings where the Batarian soldiers had planned to ambush them from, the stealth measures they had under taken by disabling the ezero cores in their armor would have likely succeeded against the Turians or Asari or Salarians, but against vehicle-grade motion trackers that used quantum mechanics? They were woefully ineffective. Rapid-fire pulses of radioactive gel hammered out from the weapons, they punched great holes into the facade, smashed down kinetic barriers, and ripped soldiers apart.

In the distance something rumbled and Ukayu swore he heard something clatter. If he could, then he would smile, finally something that might be a challenge, because it sounded like a tank at least judging by the pitch. He knew that the only vehicles that really stood a chance against Mgalekgolo were MBTs.

Sure enough on his motion tracker a new blip appeared, a large one that was moving fast toward his position. According to the overlaid street map, it was following the avenues and roads to approach, which confirmed it as a vehicle of some kind. Ukayu gave out his next set of orders, they would split into two pairs and use parallel roads to advance on the objective.

Behind them, with a ghostly hum came thrum and vehicle support in the form of a pair of Revenants and a quartet of Specters glided up. Their weapons hummed with power, supporting the vehicles was several lances of infantry. With a single order, the units dispersed and went about their business.

Ukayu wished he could smirk as he heard the tank approach, mainly because he already knew what he was going to do to the thing. He waited at the second intersection of ten that they had to traverse on the broad route of approach to get to their objective.

* * *

"We got you now!" Cemak snarled as he tank was rapidly approaching the vehicle sized enemies that the micro-UAV that was circling overhead had detected. He had just two tanks left after multiple ambushes but finally he could go on the offensive.

"HEAT is loaded boss, these poor sorry fucks won't know what hit them." His loader announced as he socked in the last shell into the clip after swapping out the AP rounds.

"ETA to engagement point is ninety seconds." The driver said as the tank shifted gears and the roar of the engine increased in pitch.

Cemak allowed himself to grin, his three remaining tanks had the chance to help stall the enemy's advance. Finally something was bound to go right on this horrible morning.

"Sighting system is recaliberated, driver next time please don't go ramming enemy tanks, it screws with the firing computer." His gunner growled in response.

"Your still giving me shit about that?" The driver growled furiously. "It prevented that Wraith from hitting us with the plasma mortar and vaporizing us all."

"Oh sure, but I still had to recaliberate the firing computer because we crashed into the that thing at a good rate of speed." The gunner shot back heatedly.

"Don't even get me started on the headache you gave me." The loader added.

Cemak groaned, his crew were professionals but at times they acted like children. "Lock it down, all three of you!" he barked out harshly. "If we go into battle bickering like this then our chances of being killed go up exponentially."

There was silence for several long moments from the crew, the only sounds being that of the engine and the tracks. Cemak looked around and swore he saw a shadow at the intersection with the avenue that this street terminated at, but he wasn't sure. What he _was_ sure of was that his decision to continue despite having his unit almost completely wiped out before reaching his final objective would help his career _immensely_.

"ETA fifty seconds!" The Driver said and Cemak activated his own weapon station and then he peered through the various viewports of his tank. He could see at the intersection gunfire, plasma, and needles being exchanged. He knew that his tank would be more than enough to tip the balance against the enemy.

"Gunner, once we engage you may fire at will." Cemak said as he counted down the seconds mentally.

"Affirmative." The gunner replied with excitement audible in his voice.

"ETA twenty seconds!" The driver said and then yelled. "Holy shit!"

To Cemak it appeared as if a monster had seemingly materialized right in front of the tank. _Oh Edos why?!_ Cemak thought as the massive alien braced itself yet also had cocked its massive shield back. "Fire at it! Fucking fire at it!" Cemak thundered, not really noticing the usage of the human curse as he opened up with the HMG, hurling massive rounds down range.

"Coaxial on the way!" The gunner shouted as the machine gun bellowed.

The alien had expertly angled itself and the rounds just seemed to be plinking off its armor despite them being heavy rounds at c-fractional velocity. Still why was its shield cocked back like that?

Cemak realized the answer with horror just as the alien blurred into motion, neatly sidestepping just as the main gun discharged, the shot flew past the alien and annihilated a store front. Then it swung its shield and then the next thing he knew, the tank went tumbling sideways straight into a building with a horrid crashing sound.

He blinked as he tried to think about what had just occurred, but his head was pounding from being effectively tumble-polished within his own MBT. He groaned in pain as his hearing slowly returned to normal. He could hear faintly through the hull, the discharge of weaponry.

"Everyone alright?" he asked in a daze.

"I think I broke my hand." His gunner groaned weakly. "What happened, Boss?"

"I think I just broke some ribs," his loader said before letting out a quite painful sounding grunt. "Or all of them also why is the world spinning?"

"You might have hit your head Quick Draw." His gunner said with a groan as he used the nickname that his loader had earned.

"Drumblee Runner, you okay?" Cemak found himself asking his driver, using his nickname for him.

"Ow, that hurt." Drumblee Runner replied groggily. "Did our tank just get bitch slapped?"

To Cemak that seemed like a non-sequitur asking if their tank just got "bitch slapped" but now that he thought of the movement that the alien had done? He actually found himself agreeing with his driver, but it also made him wonder what had been that _thing_? Sure he knew that if a Krogan with a warhammer got mad enough it could throw around IFVs pretty easily, but he had never seen that done to an MBT before.

He had heard in documentaries that Mgalekgolo, also known as Hunters could knock around tanks like toys. But he could never recall seeing one in what had appeared to be gold armor before, he knew that in the convoluted ranking system that the Remnants used that the different colors signified different ranks. So what did gold for Hunters signify? He really didn't know.

"What's our next move?" Drumble Runner asked, sounding more awake now.

"Let's bailout and then go from there." Cemak groaned as shifted about in the turret and that's when he realized a new problem. "You've gotta be shitting me."

The cause for Cemak's exclamation was simple, the commander's and loader's hatches were now fairly close to what was now the ceiling and considering the lack of maneuvering room within the cramped quarters, it would make getting out a challenge. Unless they were all willing to try and get out via the driver's hatch. They were effectively stuck.

"Well this is a fine mess." someone said, Cemak didn't know who but he agreed with the sentiment.

* * *

 **0420 Hours, January 23rd, 2667 (Military Calendar)**

 **Auction District of Harr'mae City, Planet Vibburn**

 **Mgalekgolo Major Ukayu Xaya Bewo**

The Mgalekgolo gave a rumbling snort as the Batarian tank came to rest on its side, its suspension utterly wrecked and its main gun askew. That had been pathetically easy, any experienced tank crew would have known to engage him at range, not try and run him over.

Apparently that fact hadn't been taught to Batarian Tankers. Which had led to that failure, plus he knew from experience that when tanks did try to ram, they almost always fired just a few seconds from impact. Which meant that he had learned the fine art of how to handle suicidal tank crews.

" _I am seeing enemies along a barricade, along with a few light tanks._ " His bond brother reported. Nothing too hard then Ukayu noted, such barricades with infantry and supporting vehicles had been common during The False Crusade and while most barricades were good enough for blocking several hours worth of plasma exchanged in a firefight manner, very few could absorb assault cannons.

The light tanks might complicate matters though, they would have the firepower to kill him and his fellows just through concussive force if they landed enough hits on his body armor. But who said he needed to engage the line directly in an attack that while it would be successful would also be costly? He did have a light assault gun carriage with him after all.

"Gaurt 1-3, put a mortar shot right in the middle of these idiots." Ukayu found himself ordering as he angled his shield while rounds from the light tank impacted his shield with considerable force.

" _Wilco, firing now._ " The commander/gunner/driver for the fast two-man tank said in response. A moment later he could feel the heat from the plasma mortar as it charged up, harsh red-blue light bathed the street, putting the dark street into harsh illumination. It seemingly whited out the plasma bolts and crystalline needles that were already flying.

Then it discharged, the shot raced down the broad avenue and hit one of the enemy light tanks almost dead on. Both it and a sizeable portion of the barricade evaporated as if it were candle wax exposed to a blow torch. The concussive force caused more of it to shatter, splinter, and crack while the thermal pulse turned easily a half dozen Batarians into live screaming torches that flailed around in a bid to put out the flames, not that it helped them.

"Commence full attack." Ukayu ordered and it dissolved into pandemonium. Energy bursts and crystals streaked downrange and despite the efforts of the remaining light tanks, it was hopeless for them really. A coordinated attack composed of line infantry, shock infantry, heavy infantry, and vehicles; particularly an assault done by the Remnants was something to be feared.

By the end of the third minute of the assault, one of the remaining light tanks was partially slagged and burning while the other was missing its turret and had a gout of fire reaching into the slowly brightening sky, the few mounted machine gun nests had been shattered, while the infantry that weren't brave or foolhardy enough to stand their ground were retreating as fast as they could, with some firing desperately as they fled.

On Ukayu's HUD, he brought the piper for his Assault Cannon to bear on a small group of fleeing batarians and it glowed red. He fired, the burst of pulses his weapon launched forth could still be considered anti-light vehicle rounds, thus they smashed past kinetic barrier and hardsuit with relative ease, sending the soldiers tumbling to the ground in varying states of dismemberment.

It wasn't until thirty minutes later that their main objective was in sight. There was a single MBT guarding it, along with a smattering of infantry, having fought through several more defensive positions Ukayu knew that this advance was likely on its last legs. Most of the regular infantry squads had suffered losses and the shock infantry had most certainly seen better days in terms of numbers, but the vehicles and heavy infantry we're still at full strength.

It really was easy to come up with a plan to crack open that defense. Since it was focused around that tank, ironically enough it put him and his bond-brother in the greatest danger since due to positioning the enemy would get at least one round off first, particularly because the Revenant had poor indirect fire capabilities.

"Alright, here's the plan. Myself and Momuru are going to double-tap the tank, if that doesn't kill it, then you are to hit it with a plasma launcher which likely will kill it if we don't. After the tank is taken care off, everyone else is to engage at will." Ukayu rumbled deeply.

After getting confirmation from the various units. It was child's play to put into motion and its effectiveness couldn't be denied. Ukayu and his bond-brother took great thundering steps into view of the tank, their shields angled.

Almost immediately the machine and infantry fired, Ukayu grunted as the tungsten penetrator impacted his shield and with a horrific scream skipped off it and went wind-milling end over end. It fired three seconds later with similar results but the impact force caused him to stagger slightly, he growled and advanced again. His Assault Cannon _hummed_ with power as it built up a charge and the muzzle glowed a baleful green.

The tank crew panicked and reversed while angling, several slow reacting Batarians vanished under the hulking machine, turning into smears upon the treads and ground; the machine guns spoke their terrifying fury. Sending bullets flying and shattering against armor.

With near simultaneous _whumps_ , the two assault cannons discharged. Twin bolts of green fire flew forth and smashed against the tank one after the other in a devastating one-two punch. The kinetic barriers flashed as the fuel rods detonated in blinding green explosions that sent aerosolized radioactive gel everywhere while the kinetic barriers glowed as armor blackened and cracked as the tarmac the tank rested upon melted.

Already Ukayu was cycling his Assault Cannon up for another shot. It was _thrumming_ with power, but before he could discharge it. A concentrated bolt of red fire the size of a human's forearm streaked past him, it impacted the tank square in the frontal glacis and burrowed through armor like it was paper and detonated inside.

Flames burst out of the hatches and from the lethal wound caused by the plasma launcher, moments later a massive explosion from the reserve ammunition stored in the hull detonated, unseating the turret and causing it to come to rest upon the engine deck.

Ukayu rumbled his thanks to the shock infantry team and then shifted his aim. Then fired. The bolt of green fire streaked across the battlefield and detonated where it instantly chunked easily a half dozen Batarians, rendered four more on the ground screaming in utter agony while the rest seemed stunned from what happened. It was at that moment that the regular line infantry struck, they surged over the hill and their weapons spoke their wrath.

A flurry of plasma and crystalline needs shot forth, barriers flared and armor began to glow while body gloves ignited, despite the massive Mgalekgolo providing fire support, the Batarians didn't break, they fought bitterly. The battle only really began to tip when the shock infantry with their invariably faster firing and harder hitting weaponry swept in behind the steadily advancing line infantry with an indomitable speed and grace.

The harsh foul language that the Batarian soldiers were using quickly turned to screams as the gunfire fell away to nothing as plasma and needles ended lives with brutal efficiency.

However the other team seemed to be having difficulty, the other tank was holding out firmly as streams of gel crashed against its barriers as its armor blacked and its main gun roared defiance. Mass Effect weaponry chattered as it dueled with plasma rifles, plasma repeaters, and assault needlers, light blue streaks dueling with streams of darker blue bolts and bursts of pink needles.

" _That tank is sure putting a crimp in my morning, can somebody knock it out?_ "

" _No joy here, that crew is good. They are forcing the Mgalekgolo back with HEDP rounds, which isn't a bad choice and they've already severely injured one plus they are working with the infantry well enough._ "

" _Why hasn't this thing's barriers failed yet? Its taking a hell of a pounding with absolutely no problems._ "

Ukayu thought about why the kinetic barriers of the enemy tank weren't failing. He had heard stories of tanks with kinetic barriers absorbing immense punishment when they had shifted all of their available output to a single-facing. Such a tactic made tanks incredibly potent in defensive positions but incredibly vulnerable to flanking attacks.

His Assault Cannon came to bear on the tank some 470-meters away and it thrummed with power as a green glow built in the muzzle. Then it discharged with a loud _whump_. The bolt of green energy covered the distance in an eyeblink before smashing into the tank and punching through its hull and detonating inside. Metal and polymer so deformed it appeared to twisted pieces of hot plastic was flung away from the impact point while the turret was thrown high in the air atop a pillar of flame.

Without their tank support, the Batarians wilted almost immediately under the heavy fire. Plasma and needles began reaping their toll immediately as the main source of firepower for the Batarian position was simply no more. But the Batarians didn't stop fighting, they fought to the last man even as they took additional fire from the flanks.

Ukayu then turned to face his objective, it was a squat building, made of stone instead of polymers and steel or at the very least had a stone facade. Motion Trackers were going crazy, there were hundreds of sentients in the building. Some of which shone red, indicating hostiles but the _vast majority_ shone yellow indicating neutrals. He growled, they had found their objective alright.

Twin fuel rod blasts blew the wall apart and chaos descended as the infantry entered the hole and plasma discharges illuminated the interior of the building as the screams of panicked Batarians filled the air.

* * *

 **AN:** Alright there we go, chapter is finished. This honestly took longer than it should have, but I got an explanation for that. First I had to deal with midterms, then I had to deal with finals and moving out of my college dorm, then my Summer Internship started, but hopefully I can get something of a schedule going again soon.


End file.
